Illumination
by photo88
Summary: Riku is a normal lonely boy whos life gets interesting when a new girl moves to his town. Rikaimine. Rated T for suggestive themes.
1. Cool Air

**Illumination**

**Hey everybody, so heres my first Fic Illumination.**

**[][][]Summary- Riku is a depressed individual who finds hope and more when a new girl comes to town. [][][]**

**Disclaimer: I am not in ownership of the Kingdom Hearts 1 or 2 franchise.**

**I made some edits to the original story so I am replacing the chapters with updated ones.**

**1**

Riku took another deep breath of the cold mountain air as he returned from one more day of school. He envisioned the air traveling down into his lungs and wished he could watch the oxygen permeate his veins and bloodstream. Wearing only a brown turtleneck and shorts, Riku felt completely underdressed for the temperature. His friend, Sam, walked beside him, oblivious to the temperature because of his thick coat.

Attempting common conversation, Pence ventured, "So... Riku, what's agoin' on?"Pence jostled and waited patiently for a reply from Riku.

"Nothing. Well, I overheard that we have the possibility of a substitute in English tomorrow." Neither of the two was avidly interested in scholastics, but to avoid extended silences they talked about whatever was available. Nothing was off limits, but they didn't take full advantage of the opportunity.

"Awesome! We had one like two days ago!" Pence shook his head in confusion and confessed, "I think the teacher is up to something."

"Possibly," Riku said calmly and stared into the bluish sky. Much to Pence's dismay he wasn't in the mood for jokes.

Riku's house was closer to the school, about a quarter mile away, but for certain reasons it was usually best for the two to do their homework at Pence's place.

Conversation dwindled then started again then repeated the cycle. After a minute of complete silence they laughed or at least Pence was laughing. Riku was always more reserved than Pence or anyone in Twilight Town Town for that matter and hardly spoke a word unless provoked. But Pence made up for Riku's absence of speech by being as lively and as talkative as any slightly overweight highschooler could be.

"Here we are." Pence walked over to the obvious hide-a-key and unlocked the door to the two- story duplex. He peeked inside then pulled his finger to his mouth indicating to be quiet, not that it was a problem for Riku.

"Dad's asleep," Pence mouthed as he motioned to go around back. Riku walked around and was followed by an exaggerated stealth master Pence with the key. In the doorknob, the key chinked and clicked to signify the unlocking of the door, and they snuck inside. The TV was on and was playing 'Sex and the City' which proved that Mr. Otari had been asleep for a while. Riku noticed the empty bottles of Guinness strewn across the floor, and he snickered at Pence's father's current state. A few years before, the Otari family had invested in a good stock choice with Apple Computers and Mr. Otari didn't have to work a real job after that.

The quiet pair tip-toed upstairs and into Pence's room past Pence's brother's room and a spazzy cat. They opened Pence's door and revealed a completely trashed room. No one was surprised though, it was always like that. There were dirty clothes on the TV and an upside-down slice of pizza on the carpet. Riku didn't want to know what was in the closet. Pence jumped down onto his bed and turned on the television which made Riku feel right at home. Riku got out his English homework and began scribbling down drabble.

"I tell ya', I am sick of all of all of Roxas and Hayner's bull. What did I ever do to them?"Pence asked.

"I don't know," Riku replied in a deep and melancholy tone.

"Yeah, really, but that is not reason enough to torment me for my entire life."

"True." Riku finished his English vocabulary sentences and started on his math problems.

"They should just leave us alone."

"Just ignore them," Riku finally answered.

"It's not that easy. They just sort of show up when you don't want them to. I think they're actually a collection of Supervillains. What we know is only their aliases," Pence finished mysteriously. Riku chuckled slightly and stared into space.

A lengthy pause ensued, filled with thoughtful dual daydreaming of a better world. Then it stopped just as quickly as it started, and they both got back to their homework.

_I'm hungry. _Riku thought and cleared his throat.

"Can I get a snack?" Riku asked.

"Yeah sure. We've got chips and uhh, a lot of other food. You know where to find it."

"Thanks," Riku said and walked downstairs. 'Sex and the City' had finished, and now the sleeping Mr. Otari was watching 'Top Ten Summer Fashions' and was completely unaware of Riku's presence. He mumbled something in Japanese in his sleep. Riku walked not all that carefully down into the kitchen to pick up a box of Poptarts and a drink. As he was pouring himself a cup of orange juice he saw, in a mirror, the reflection of a beautiful girl walking down the street, and he couldn't help but stare.

Her dark hair caught in the brisk wind, and she brushed it out of her eyes with the back of her hand. She wore a light blue and light red striped scarf around her skinny neck and a pair of black jeans hugging her lean legs. He could only infer what she looked like in more summery clothes.

_She is eye-candy to the extreme. Whoa! _ While stargazing Riku entirely forgot about the orange juice which managed to spill all over the counter. He picked up a ring of paper towels and wiped up the mess. When he had cleaned up completely, he looked up and out the window, but strangely the girl was gone. He felt a tinge of sadness as if he had lost something forever and missed her absence already. He hadn't even seen her face.

Mr. Otari grumbled and shifted on the couch. Not wanting to disturb him, Riku jogged carefully with the snack and drink back upstairs. There Pence was lying on his bed reading his sister's "Teen Vogue" magazine.

"Come on man, what are you doing?" Riku joked and threw the magazine on the floor.

"What! I'm doing... reconnaissance," He mumbled in response.

"Yeah. Sure."

"Seriously! I'm finding out the things that girls look for in guys. See, it says here to 'make sure he cares about you and will never judge you.' Cool with me," Pence explained. Riku nodded his head in agreement and absently stared at the TV screen.

"Seeya man." Pence waved goodbye to a departing Riku who returned the gesture. He walked slowly through the yard onto the sidewalk and began his trek home. As he stepped on a crumpled leaf he began to worry about his mother. She was prone to sporadic instances of depression; at the blink of an eye she could change moods. Hopefully when he arrived home she would be in one of her more passive moods and not throw anything at him out of distress.

A biker flew by, and Riku deftly removed himself from his path. He had a strange urge to tackle the bike rider off his bike and onto the grass. Certain people just irked him. And Riku hated bikes. He hated all fast things. Why waste all that speed and energy just to get to some meaningless destination quicker? Running was fine, but bikes and skateboards were too loud for Riku's tastes. Besides, there was a much higher possibility of injury involved. Taking things slow and enjoying every last detail was the way Riku thought he lived. It was ironic seeing how he wasn't at all attentative to everything but his own thoughts much of the time.

He reached his house within five minutes and was happy to see his mom cooking dinner on the stove. It smelled like pork chops.

"What's for dinner?" he asked in greeting and to make sure that it was in fact his favorite dish on the stove.

"Pork chops."

"I'll help make a salad."

"Okay, I think I bought some lettuce yesterday. It's in the fridge," she said and pointed with a spatula.

Riku opened the door to the refrigerator and was astonished at how empty it was. There were a few apples, a half carton of milk and some lettuce.

_I'm happy I went to Pence's. Would've starved here._ The sound and smell of the sizzling meat brought the thought to his mind.

"I thought you were supposed to go to the grocery store today."

"Sorry, I was... busy." It was then that Riku noticed the water stains on her sweater and her somewhat red eyes.

"Mom, you have to see a doctor about this."

"Oh hush, I'm fine. Tell you what. Right after you go to school tomorrow I'm gonna go and get 30 dollars worth of groceries, okay?" she asked with as much of a smile as she could stand.

"Alright, then you go up to that Laundromat down the road and talk about that empty job slot they have."

"Deal."

That night Riku slept soundly and didn't worry about a thing. He didn't have the best life, but that was okay, and he could deal with that. He usually never dreamt of anything, but that night the girl in the scarf crept into his mind.

He was chasing her through a mazelike mansion, and from the angle he was running from he could never see her face. She was only walking but Riku was always far behind her. Then finally he grabbed hold of her arm and turned her around to at last see her face.

The alarm clock buzzed. 6:30.

_Shit. This always happens. I think dreams time themselves to do that. _Riku kicked off his blankets after this moment of thought and turned off the annoying buzzer. He cursed bizarre combinations of swear words in his mind and walked over to the bathroom for a shower. In his early morning daze he stepped in before the cascading water warmed up and got pummeled with what felt like icicles.

"SHIT!" He exclaimed loudly jumping around naked in the shower and wildly turning the faucet away from him. He hardly enjoyed his morning routine.

**Thanks for reading. Please review!**

**Photo88**


	2. Reality

**Hey everybody,**

**Back again with chapter 2 of Illumination. I wrote half of this chapter in one sitting, I thought that you might want to know that for some reason. Well, I suck at summaries that wont give anything away so... here it is.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything resembling Kingdom of Hearts. That said throw me in jail to justify, something.**

**2**

Riku got out of the shower and shook his head, violently spraying the mirror with particles of water. He then picked up the towel and wrapped it around his waist before stepping out of the over-condensated bathroom. The sharply cold air stung his bare skin and caused him to shiver as he walked into his bedroom. There he picked out the first shirt he saw, a blue polo hanging on a doorknob, some boxers, a pair of jeans and, remembering how cold it was yesterday, a jacket as well. He put the clothes on silently thinking hard about a movie he had seen a few nights ago.

Riku walked into the kitchen almost fully dressed and looked inside the refrigerator for any scrap of food. Sadly, he was unsuccessful. So instead of eating breakfast that morning, he wrote his mom a note reminding her to get groceries. He was bored, and it was only 6:50 so he had time to read another chapter in a book. It was a science fiction novel by one of his favorite authors. Reading it brought his mind away from the subtle displeasures of the world.

Usually by the time that Riku had finished the chapter he could have made himself breakfast and lunch, but thanks to his mother's forgetfulness he would be fasting that day. His stomach was already grumbling. _I'll have to bribe Pence for some food, which will be hard seeing how much he loves his lunch. But if I can't get him to supply me with something then I'll be goin' Hindu. _Riku wasn't a religious boy, but he wasn't exactly against the idea of anything. Often, in conversation he changed his philosophical viewpoints to extremes. This was not only for the sake of argument but also because it helped him see a third point of view. He often thought about the concepts of life, death, and eternity late into the night and occasionally he conversed with Pence about their views.

As soon as Riku arrived within eyeshot of the school, a feeling of vertigo overtook him. He felt faint and dizzy and had to sit down on the curb to regain his balance. Eventually, a sense of stability returned to his mind and he could stand up once again.

"You okay man?" Someone's voice came from behind him and Riku turned around drunkenly.

"Yeah." He walked with the person who owned the voice regaining balance as they went.

"What happened there?" It was Pence. He was riding a scooter that was much too small for him. Riku would have smiled, but at the time he had no energy to spare for extra facial movements.

"I have no idea," Riku responded simply, "I just got all dizzy and my vision went black." _Maybe, it was because I didn't have breakfast._

"Ah, that's happened to me before. Usually right after I am way too tired or something like that." Riku nodded with interest and walked into the warmed up entrance hall of West Twilight Town High School. After some convincing Pence parted with an apple from his lunch.

Morning meetings were never fun, but today Mr. Redari was being especially annoying. He had decided to go over the entire years sport schedule. By the end of it all, the 10th graders were groaning with disgust and boredom. Sadly, when Pence and Riku split to go to different level math classes, Riku had finished the apple and would have to suffer through the next couple hours with his stomach somewhat quenched.

"Today, we are going to be doing a pop quiz. Hope you've been studying your Pythagorean Theorem." The class groaned melodramatically to the teacher's cruel delight and she began passing out the papers. Riku was actually somewhat prepared for the quiz; he had a hunch about it all of yesterday and had reviewed for five minutes that night, a sort of record. Occasionally Pence and he would nimbly swap test papers and edit each other's mistakes. However, Pence wasn't in Rikus's math class, and Riku had no support this time.

The questions were simple enough, just easily dissected problems dealing with one or two variables. Soon after getting the test done Riku was bored out of his mind and began to doodle. He learned long ago that looking at the clock only makes time tick more slowly, so he took up the practice of doodling. Being in art class every semester, he had become a very seasoned artist. He could sketch quite well and decided to draw a scarf. He based it on the girl he had seen the day before, and before he knew it, he was drawing her as well. He focused intensely on the back side of his test paper and soon forgot entirely about his surroundings. She was facing away from him in the picture as well as his dream, but Riku could already tell that she was beautiful.

Just as he was finished the blaring bell rang and surprised everybody in the classroom, especially Riku.

"Turn in your tests before you go!" Over the stomping feet of fleeing students, the teacher screamed, "Turn in your tests before you go!" Riku was somewhat saddened by the loss of his portrait, and as he walked out the door in a disheartened mood to go to his locker, he was knocked to the floor. He looked up at a snickering Roxas racing through the crowd with his assistant Hayner. Riku shook it off and picked up his textbooks, but internally he was harvesting a burning hatred for the boy. This hatred had been building since the first day that they had met.

Roxas had this certain facial structure that irked the living hell out Riku and Pence. Because he was big in school sports, people flocked to Roxas like birds to a feeder. He was rich, talented, good looking, and popular. But everyone needs a guinea pig or two, and Riku was a pushover, so he fit the position perfectly. Before Riku learned that not standing up for himself got him no-where, Roxas had already driven him so far down the social totem pole that he wasn't even on it. Riku harvested thoughts like these, and they angered him but since there was not a lot he could do about it. So he tried not to think about it.

Pence waved to Riku as he walked into English class before him. Riku sluggishly followed him inside the room with as little gusto as he could muster. When he did enter the room all lethargic molecules fled from his body. The girl with the striped scarf was sitting before him. She entranced him by simply sitting there looking down at her English vocabulary book; no tricks involved. In his engaged state he tripped on the corner of the desk and some kids in the back snickered. Riku eventually sat down but still kept flipping his eyes back to her out of fear that she might dissipate into thin air as she seemed to do the day before.

Pence tapped Riku on the shoulder and said in his mock rapper voice, "Damn, who opened the pearly gates of heaven and let out this shawty?" Riku would have smiled at the joke but was too busy gazing at the goddess who sat in the back row. He wasn't alone, however, in his infatuation; almost every guy in the room was eyeing the new girl and calculating the potential of a girlfriend opportunity.

Roxas then strutted into the room. He spotted the nymph-like girl and sat down casually next to her. She didn't look up. Riku thought that she was playing hard to get. Roxas motioned to Hayner to keep away from his space and proceeded with small talk. The change in suaveness was evident as he sat down and began a conversation.

"So, I hear you're new in town," he mentioned smoothly. She nodded and turned a page in her book.

"What do ya think so far?" Roxas listened intently for some reply.

"Seems nice," she replied calmly. Her voice was quiet but possessed a certain quality that made it stand out over the buzz of talkative chatter.

"Good. I have to warn you, Mrs. Hazer can be kinda' strict." She looked up and proved that her face was as pleasant as her body and smiled at him kindly.

"Thank you. I'm Kairi by the way."

"I'm Roxas, but I'm being sarcastic, you'll see why in a minute."

Roxas grinned smugly to himself when she wasn't looking. Every other boy in the room burned with jealousy.

_Another point for Roxas. _Riku told himself that there would be others, but then asked himself who? And when? There was another new kid in class, a guy. He was concerned with his IPod and was wildly bobbing his head to the beat. He wore Underarmor and a loose T-shirt that said 'UP' sideways on it. Riku didn't get it, but he knew that there was something strange about the fellow. Riku would soon find out just how strange.

**So know he knows who the mysterious girl was too bad shes goin for Roxas... And who is this crazy guy with the ipod? Find out next chapter. Okay so please tell me what you thought anyone who wants to give a suggestion is welcome to review at any time.**

**Thanks, Photo88**


	3. Salutations

**Hey, so ive been working on chapter three for a while and I hope it's, reasonably entertaining. Enjoy.**

**3**

Riku sat up as Mrs. Hazer entered the room looking intoxicated as usual and watched her clumsily put her books down on her desk. How she got hired was a question on many students' minds. He stifled a laugh and caused a reasonably noticeable noise to emanate from his mouth. Kairi looked over at him in wonder of what the disturbance was and their eyes met strikingly. He was stunned but soon retrieved his wits and looked back at her. He waited for a response, a smile or a wave. Hell, he'd be fine with anything at all. But what he got was even better, a staring contest with the prettiest girl in school. She didn't carry any expression on her face but in her eyes Riku could tell that there was something more to the girl as he pondered through her facial features.

The staring that occurred might have gone on for a longer time had Roxas not noticed the spectacle and intervened.

"Hey Kairi," Roxas sought wildly for an excuse for calling her name, "do you have any gum?"

She shook her head. "Sorry," she said and looked away from him back at her vocabulary words. Roxas glared at Riku oppressively and tilted his head toward Kairi before pointing to his chest and indicating possession. Riku had to look away from the tyrant. He couldn't stand looking into his evil eyes. It reminded him of a devil. He stared at his desk feeling defeated and mellow.

The loud techno from the boy in the corner's IPod continued throughout the entire class period and conversation commenced again between Kairi and Roxas. The teacher lay slumped in her chair drooling slightly on her chin and was completely oblivious to the pupils as they talked away for the next hour. Riku conversed with Pence the entire time subtly about the new students in the school.

"She is sooo hot."

"Yeah."

"You should ask her out," Pence said.

"What?" Riku retorted, "What would a girl like that want with me?"

"I don't know just give it a shot. What's the worst thing that could possibly happen?"

Riku paused before answering, and thought of the consequences."It's not that. She just already fell into the tractor beam of Roxas."

"I see. Sucks," Pence said nodding and got back to working on his unfinished History homework. Riku returned his attention to the ceiling and the sound of the brunette's IPod buzzing away. He closed his eyes and wished that he had something to do; school was so endlessly boring.

The bell thankfully rang and Riku jumped out of his seat energetically. He sprinted out to his locker hoping that something would happen. His prayers were not answered.

History was usually a fun class and hopefully the professor had an interesting lesson for them that day. Pence and Riku walked into the room and looked around curiously. Mr. Kennedy had the room set up into 3 desk segments. Being the first ones to enter the class, Pence and Riku chose two seats near the back window. Students began to pour in. As they did, Riku wished that Kairi would sit in their empty seat. But as the bell rang and the last students raced inside, there was no Kairi. Pence and he were alone, as usual. Then the new boy wearing the Underarmour peeked around the corner. He had finally put the IPod in his pocket. He was wearing bell-bottom pants.

"This is Mr. Kennedy's room, right?" The brunette smiled cautiously.

"You better believe it is. Come on in and tell us your name," Mr. Kennedy said in a benign tone.

"Sora," the boy said and walked over to the empty seat next to Riku and Pence. Obviously Mr. Kennedy had known about the new student's arrival.

"Alright Sora, so take a seat. Our current unit is ancient Mesopotamian religion, and I'm sure that Riku or Pence will be happy to fill you in on the details. Sora sat down and nodded at the two.

"Today we're starting a group project on the gods of Mesopotamian culture and how they affect us today. This is due Next Monday so that'll give you a grand amount of time to complete it." He said as he sat down at his desk and began grading tests.

"Do you guys know anything about Mesopotamia?" Sora asked quietly. Riku and Pence looked at each other and then back at Sora and shook their heads. He laughed, and they did as well. Their laughter was not out of intimidation but because it was actually kind of pathetic. They had been studying the unit for two weeks now and neither of them knew anything about Mesopotamia.

"So which one of you is Riku and which one is Sam?" He asked calmly. Conversations in the classroom had picked up.

"I'm Riku. You can remember me by my white hair. And that's Pence." Pence waved distantly.

"Alright, so fill me in what's the deal with the school? How do you like it?"

Usually the talkative one, Pence joined the conversation. "It's nice. Just watch out for Roxas. He's the over-confident blonde asshole who hangs out with Hayner." Pence didn't have to worry about keeping his voice down because none of Roxas' cronies was in that class.

"Okay."

"Where did you come from?" Riku inquired and clutched his stomach sensing a foreboding growl.

"I was born and lived in a group of isles called the Destiny Islands. Have you heard of it?"

"Can't say I have. What was it like there?"It was then that he realized how tan Sora was.

"Is that near Hawaii?" Pence chimed in.

"Not quite." He answered Pence's query then Riku's, "Very... warm." He looked out the window at the grey sky. "I never had to wear a sweater before this. The jog from the orphanage was kind of chilly, but that couldn't make me ride the bus."

"Hold up, you're an orphan?" Pence asked curiously.

"Right, I forgot to tell you. Yeah, well there was this crazy guy who had to live out some ludicrous fantasy that involved the killing of my parents and others." Riku and Pence stared in shock at Sora's calmness. "It's cool though. My parents were losers to me anyway. So the town shipped me off to the coldest place that they could find and threw me in the orphanage."

"Is that Kairi girl from the Destiny islands too?"

"Um, yeah, she is. She actually seems pretty sad about her loss so be careful about what you say to her." Sora spoke in such an upbeat tone about ominous topics in a way that was too surreal.

_She didn't look that sad. I won't mention it though._

The class carried on as normal and the trio started their project. They completed much of it in that period.

History ended and Sora, Riku and Pence walked out of the class together as newfound friends and stepped downstairs to lunch._ Thank God. My stomach is killing me._

A lot of kids ordered hot lunches and the lines, Riku noticed, were quite long indeed. Sora groaned fervently as he walked in and went to sit with Riku and Pence before waiting in line.

"Geez! The lines here are really long," Sora blurted over the sound of their fellow noisy teenagers. Pence started up a conversation with him about the food at their school and how it was sooo tasty. Riku simply stared exuberantly and enviously at Kairi and Roxas sitting side by side at a few tables away. They were talking and laughing vigorously, but Riku knew that Kairi would get hurt by him, emotionally and maybe even physically. All that Roxas wanted out of girls... _Let's not go on a tirade. _

He zoned back in to hear Pence jovially jostling the junior sitting next to him about the kind of car that he drove or, as he soon found out, the car that he didn't drive.

"You mean that you jogged all the way here? That's like 3 miles!" Riku imagined Pence in sweats, jogging around and smiled at the thought.

"It's not that farewell, kind of." Pence wasn't convinced. "Come on. Haven't either of you ever been on a jog before?" Neither of them moved out of embarrassment. "COME ON! This is ridiculous. Okay, today after school its runnin' time."

"I...I can't jog well," Pence mumbled.

"I can teach ya," he grinned cheerily and jostled Pence back.

"I'll go," Riku butted in tired of witnessing the dialogue.

"Great!" Sora clasped his hands together, "So where do you all live?"

"My dad's place is on Oak Street, about 1/3 of a mile down that road and you take a right," he pointed, "I can show you where Riku lives from there."

"Cool. I'll come over after school," Sora said beaming still over his victory over Pence's self-consciousness, "Now let me get some lunch."

**So, a new character. Sora the maniac from destiny islands who loves to exercise, that's right. So next chappie will include an awkward jog and...**_** spoilers not included.**_

**Thanks for reading,**

**Photo88**


	4. The Sweatpants and the Closet

**Chapter 4 of Illumination is as follows...Sorry its kinda short but I had a big school project I had to work on.**

**Anyways, What do you think of the title, I wanted something remote and obscure as a title and want to make sure what everybody thinks.**

**4**

After a somewhat eventful French Class, a monotonous drug awareness speech from the principal, and Study Hall, Riku was able to walk home. He waited for the stampede following the final bell to leave out of fear of being trampled by the bulky seniors. Even though Riku was slightly tall it was still a danger for him to get in the way of the wrong upperclassman.

Riku peeked out of the Section B 9th grade study room and stared out across the barren hallway. _All clear._ He said to himself and ambulated casually to the exit. A giggle ricocheted down the hall and caught the attention of the white-haired boy. He turned around. Roxas and Kairi were walking down the hallway together not holding hands, but they put off an aura of passion as they ambled toward the way out. Riku kept walking, willing himself not to look back to see Roxas's smug face staring back at him. He could just picture how he looked knowing that he had yet again conquered the unpopular.

Riku was mentally fuming as he rounded the corner down Galvan Street to his house. The walk felt shorter than it usually did, probably because all the interesting things that had happened that day occupied his thoughts._ A new friend every once in a while doesn't hurt anything._

When he got home Riku found a full fridge and was proud that his Mother had actually gone through with her promise to get groceries. He was still somewhat hungry from not having any breakfast, so he got himself a bowl of Cocoa Pebbles, brought it into the living room and began munching in front of an open newspaper. Normally Riku didn't read the news, but the house was remarkably quiet and he was in need of an activity.

"Mom! Are you there?" he yelled backwards down the musty hall.

"What. What is it?" She walked out of her room carrying a book in one arm, wearing her pajamas.

"Oh, nothing. Just wondering where you were." Actually, ever since Aerith had tried to commit suicide with antihistamines, Riku stayed on edge.

"I love this book. I don't even know what the hell it's called though, someone lost the cover," she informed Riku while placing a makeshift bookmark where her thumb was.

"Cool. Hey, did you see about that job offer up at the Laundromat?" Riku inquired quickly shoveling in a spoonful of cereal.

"Yeah!" she smiled excitedly, "They said I could start working in two days. The hours are from 8 to 5 on weekdays and 10 to 4 on the weekends. 57 hours a week." She frowned with negative anticipation at the work to come. "Well, the good news is that in 2 months we can buy a TV." She walked back into her room.

Money for a TV had become a topic of great interest for Riku. Ever since Cloud, his father, died two years ago there hadn't been much money in the house, and they had to sell their television. Except at Pence's, there had been no movies or TV for a long time.

While he was pondering the various sizes of televisions, the chime of a doorbell rang out in the silence. Just then Riku remembered about the jog he was supposed to be preparing for.

"Hey."

"What's up," said Pence slightly bashfully, completely dressed in jogger's attire. Sora smiled and looked about the residence of Riku.

"Nice place," he said tactfully. It wasn't a lie either. The house was poorly equipped but it was very clean and tidily kept.

"Thanks. I'll be right out. I should probably get some running clothes on." Riku sped away into his unbelievably messy room and cautiously opened the door. He slipped on some sweatpants that he pulled from his dresser drawer before picking up a half drunken bottle of Gatorade off the floor. Fully ready he walked out into the kitchen where Sora and Pence were sitting. Sora immediately jumped up to his feet as Riku rounded the corner. Sora was obviously eager as he bounced on his toes.

"You ready?" Pence asked sluggishly getting out of his chair.

"Yeah. Where are we running to?"

"You guys can show me around town, but I thought we'd head up to the town square. Where ever that may be," Sora said as he ventured back outside. Riku and Pence followed him.

"I guess we could," Pence said quietly.

"Why not? You don't sound very enthused," Sora vocalized intuitively and began picking up speed.

"Well, it's not our favorite place to go," Riku responded for Pence.

"We used to hang out there sometimes but..." Pence got embarrassed while speaking.

"But what?"

"Roxas kind of infected the place. You know what I'm sayin'?"

"Oh, kinda' sucks," Sora said. Pence was stopped and pivoted in place just as Sora came back with, "You can't let a little thing like that stop ya." Pence had to turn around again and had to sprint to catch back up.

"Alright," Riku affirmed regretfully.

The wind chill wasn't especially bad that day and Sora was thankful for it. By the time the trio reached Fallow Square it was already dark and the sun had shrunken behind the curvature of the earth creating voluminous shadows on the sidewalk as they ran. Sora was energized, Riku was somewhat fatigued and Pence was utterly exhausted as they trooped into a toasty Cafe.

"This is a nice place. Sometimes I come down and eat here when there's no food at home," Riku told Sora as they walked up to a table.

"Seems nice," Sora responded looking around and sitting down in an empty chair.

"Could I have a large root beer float? Thanks," Pence told a waitress as he attempted to lose the tired feeling.

"Can't have soda after a run," Sora mumbled under his breath. The door opened and Julie and her friend Kate walked in. They sat down at a table and Riku noticed that Pence subconsciously curled away. It was obvious that he liked one of the two. Sadly, neither of the girls noticed, and Riku felt sorry for him.

_If only Pence could lose some of his shyness. I wonder if Sora likes anyone here._ Pence got up as the waitress finished making his drink.

"Hey Sora, do you like anybody at school yet?" Riku asked.

He looked mildly befuddled, "Not really."

"Come on. There has to be someone who you think looks cute at least. Just describe her."

"Oh yeah, I'm gay," Sora stated then paused waiting for a response.

"Oh, cool." Riku didn't know how to respond.

"Yeah, I wanted to see how long I could go without telling someone," Sora smiled. Since there were hardly any gay guys in Twilight Town, Riku now fully understood Sora's bizarreness and saw it a new and amiable light.

"It's just that I've never met anyone gay before," Riku confessed.

"It's cool. Almost everybody acts that way when I tell 'em," Sora admitted with a grin.

"Hey guys what's up?" Pence said and returned with a root beer float in hand.

"I was just telling Riku that I am gay."

"Oh. Cool," Pence stammered and caused Riku and Sora to crack up.

**Sooo Soras Gay, were you expecting that?**

**Well anyways thanks for reading if you got this far and be sure to review.**

**Photo88**


	5. Waking up

**In this chapter there will be a jump over the divides of space and time to-**

**Hold up now?**

**Alright but there will be a jump in the Rikai relationship read and find out...**

**This Claimer: I don't own any kingdom or spare hearts so you can't have any. Meh!**

**5**

Riku simply waved goodbye at Pence and Sora as he opened the rustic front door to his house. They waved back and walked away. The house was silent and dark but Riku saw that everything was in order just as he had left it, and he was not worried. Classical music was on playing a melody that he had never heard before but was refreshing and calm.

Riku did the nightly routine, brushing teeth and washing face. But before he jumped under the few covers that he had, he decided to work-out some. His room had no such equipment for an activity of that sort so Riku decided to just do pushups on the floor. After a minute or so of that his arms were somewhat worn out, and he did some sit ups. Riku hadn't worked out in a while, and it was good to feel his stomach muscles burning again. With this simple work-out, he felt his self-respect growing along with the muscles in his upper body. He was feeling better already.

Weeks passed and Sora became quickly accustomed to the cliques and rituals of West Twilight Town High School before the first quarter ended. Riku had gotten used to the sight of Roxas and Kairi walking down the hall together and had just about given up entirely on meeting her until one eventful lunch period.

_I haven't ordered lunch since 9th grade. This'll be reviving to say the least_. Rikus muscle memory told him to get a tray, and as he was reaching to get it Kairi got in the tray getting line behind him. Out of instinct and desperation, he handed her the pale blue platter before getting his own.

"Thanks," she said halfheartedly. As she walked into the food line, she was closely followed by Riku who scrambled to get next to her. As he was scampering up, he looked for Roxas. Thankfully the guy was nowhere in sight.

_Thank God. If he delays my progress one more time, I'd have to_- Riku nearly crushed a miniscule freshman.

"Hey watch it!"The tiny kid said irritably.

The line was long, and for once Riku was happy about it. But now he was in a predicament. He couldn't say anything without a motive, or it would be too obvious.

_I got it._

"Can you see what's cooking' up there?" He waited enthusiastically but demurely for her response.

"Nope," she peered through the crowd as she spoke, "but Fridays are usually pizza so..." She looked back at Riku.

"Wow. You have really white hair."

"Yeah."

"Did you dye it?" She continued to stare at his thick head of white hair.

"No. I figured that its some DNA malfunctions. My mom has dark brown hair."

_Don't bore her with science facts._

"Cool. I love genetics." She ran her hand through her brownish red hair. "I've always loved science."

_Awesome! At least she won't think that I'm a dork._ Riku noticed that she had a bruise on her skinny shoulder.

"How did you get that bruise?"

"Oh this? Last weekend some friends and I played paintball. Do you play?" Riku had never touched a paintball gun let alone an air soft rifle but knew that Pence had a few at his house.

"Not really. But my friend Pence has an extra that I use."

"Cool. Well, we're going this Saturday afternoon. Do you wanna come?"

_Holy crap that was quick, but don't sound too enthused. But who's 'we'?_

"I guess so. Sure. Would you pick me up at my house or...?"

"Yeah, Axel can drive. So we'll just come by where ever you live." The lunch lady gave Kairi a slice of pepperoni pizza, and Riku worked to hide his fear. Axel was Roxas's junior friend and was known to be a noteworthy pyromaniac.

"Okay." The lunch lady slopped a large slice of cheese pizza face down on Rikus's paper plate. "I live on Galvan Street. It's down Pine Road."

"So we'll pick you up around 1 o'clock?" Kairi looked at him, and his thoughts went blank.

_She is the most perfect being in the world- Snap out of it!_

"Uhh, yeah, sure," Riku tried to say aimlessly as they approached the end of the line.

"Good. The more the better with paintball. Seeya Riku!" She waved and quickly left with her tray Riku, however, was left wondering where she had learned his name as he walked back to where Pence and Sora were sitting.

"What was that all about?" Pence asked sarcastically when Riku sat down next to him. He had to ask twice because Riku's mind was raging with thoughts of the upcoming Saturday.

"Oh, yeah, well, somehow I got invited to go paintballing with Kairi, Roxas, and his gang."

"What!" The chubby teenager exclaimed.

"No joke. We talked in the lunch line, and I told her where I lived." Riku smugly took a bite of his overturned pizza.

"So what's she actually like?"

"Not preppy, but not a pot head either. She's more of a nerd than anything else."

"I'm happy for ya," Sora interjected in an attempt to join the conversation. Of course he could never fully understand Rikus's veneration of Kairi.

"Thanks. But I will need to use your spyder... if at all possible."

"Yeah, sure. Just bring it back unharmed."

"I'm actually kinda worried about it. I mean, I've got no support up there in Axel's SUV." Riku looked at Sora for counsel.

"You'll be fine. What's the worst thing that could happen?" Sora smiled showing pearly white teeth.

"I don't want to even think about it." Sora's attempt at advice backfired and sent the white haired boy into a panic.

"Come on. Cut it out. So she's dating Roxas. So what? Just try to have fun, and don't worry about getting closer to Kairi. I have a feeling that that will happen on its own," Sora continued to try assuaging Rikus's fears. The attempt was working. "Hell, it's what I do."

"Okay fine." Riku calmed down and waited for the conversation to switch topics. Eventually it did, and Riku could concentrate on his food with full intensity.

_Shit! What do I do! _On the surface Riku seemed clement but his mind was racing on the inside.

Art class was the one period of the day in which Riku could relax. He had a great teacher and art was a subject that he was good in. It seemed that it couldn't get any better.

"Keep up the good work with your still-lifes. I'll be at my desk if anybody needs anything."The art teacher Mr. Card announced in his British accent before wandering back to his desk under the weight of a nagging cough. With only seven kids in the class, he had no trouble keeping their attention.

Riku walked to a rustic shelf in the room and picked up a piano metronome that he had been drawing a sketch of. He began drawing and thinking of things. Within thirty seconds, his mind wandered to tomorrow's paintball match with Kairi and Roxas. Then there was a knock on the door.

"Come in," Mr. Card said with welcoming kindness, and Kairi of all people walked in gracefully.

_Pant Pant Pant- Chill!_

"Hello dear. Somethin' you need?" Kairi looked stunned by his high British but then answered.

"Oh, Yeah. Mr. Raymond told me to come here instead of his study hall because it was too- overflowing with students." Her speech was broken but so was everybody's when they first heard the infamous accent.

"Make yourself at home. And if you'd like, you could take a stab at sketching too."

"Okay." She looked around the barren room for a place to sit as Mr. Card returned to the laptop on his desk. Riku wanted to appear uninterested but still wanted to be noticed. This effort ended up making him crane his neck awkwardly to stare at a painting hanging on the wall.

"Hey Riku." He turned his head to face her as she sat down diagonally from him.

"Hey. What's up?" He asked in what he thought was a smooth voice.

_HOLY SHIT! She just sat at the same table as MEEE!_

"Are you okay? You're kinda red."

"Oh yeah. I'm fine. Yep."

**So there ya go. My fifth chapter. **

**So tell me, What did you think?**

**Soso, Bad, Good?**

**Sorry it took a while this time I had a D in history.**

**Thanks,**

**Photo88**


	6. Paintball

**The moment you've all been waiting for, the Paintball battle with Kairi! A slight recap Riku has never played paintball before so this ought to be entertaining...**

**6**

One day later, Riku stood serenely at the corner of his street wearing his mom's old painting T-shirt and looked at the town's clock tower. It read 1:19 and Riku sighed. He decided to sit down and lean against the Galvan Street sign post, paintball gun and mask in hand. He tried to think of reasons that Kairi and Roxas's group could have been late, but it was harder than he thought. Rikus's ideas drifted to what he would do in a car full of his worst enemies and the loveliest girl at school.

Thankfully they arrived within the next five minutes in a silver Escalade blasting rock music. Those five minutes gave Riku ample time to think of a strategy. The car looked out of place in the mediocre neighborhood and brought a few pedestrians to stop in their tracks. Twilight Town had several distinct types of neighborhoods. Riku belonged to the filthy poor one.

Before the doors opened Riku saw through the tinted windows that someone was talking. They listened to something then moved their head wildly.

_Now what?_

The doors opened by remote automatically when he came within five feet of the car, and James, who was sitting in the 2nd row seat, stared blankly at him. Everybody except Kairi looked remotely pissed. In a somewhat sarcastic greeting Riku raised his eyebrows in an attempt to be cheerful and peered around for Kairi. She sat next to Hayner, and she peeked around him to wave happily back at Riku.

"You could squeeze between Ollette and Demyx in the back," Roxas mumbled with an annoyed expression on his face as he pointed to an empty seat. Riku slid deftly into place and tried not to look affected by Ollette's discontent and unwelcoming expression. The seat was occupied by a gargantuan tin of Paintballs that Riku put on his lap. Demyx, to Riku's right, had never actually done anything bad to Pence or Riku he just hung out with pricks. Ollette was one of Pence's goal girls before he split up with Hayner and Roxas and now he knew what she really was.

The music was too intense for common conversation, and Riku knew that it was intentional so that the group wouldn't have to talk in front of him.

After a few minutes of driving into the forest down a somewhat beaten road, Riku asked a question for anyone to answer, "Where are we going?"

_A harmless question._ No one answered for about five seconds and then Kairi spoke up.

"Axel?" She prodded.

"Huh, yeah. We're goin' to this place near an abandoned apartment." His silky voice could be heard once he turned down the blaring music.

"Cool," Riku said back. Another lengthy pause ensued which allowed him to notice the finer details of the car and its inhabitants. For one, Demyx had a guitar pick with the word Slave on it. Why it was there Riku had no idea. Also, every time the SUV passed a house Ollette tapped on the window three times, obviously an obsessive compulsive thing.

"We're here," Roxas said, and the vehicle slid onto gravel before coming to a stop. Happily all the occupants flooded out to explore the new terrain in hopes of finding makeshift bunkers. Conversation finally started up and after the party was acquainted with the terrain Axel gave a call for everyone to split into teams.

Before Riku could tell what was going on he was following Demyx and Kairi into the woods.

"I hate being the terrorists," Demyx complained.

"Stop whining and load up," Kairi retorted eyeing the apartment in militaristic fashion. She seemed so different from her seemingly shy personality she had at school.

_Guess that's the power of paintball. But I still don't know how you're supposed load this thing._

Riku eventually flipped open the container and dumped some paintballs into it methodically. The gun suddenly fired. It was louder than he had expected, and Demyx quickly rushed over to him.

"Don't give away our position!" he whispered loudly to make a point, "I think Kairi has a plan." He followed him through the trees to Kairi's fallen tree base. She sat on her knees holding a pair of binoculars to her mask.

"The biggest problem is Axel on the balcony. He's got a clear shot all through the parking lot." She said to herself but in a way that commanded attention.

"Just go around through the forest-" Demyx tried to interject but was overruled by the newly self-appointed general.

"They'd be expecting that. We need... a distraction." Both Demyx and Kairi glared at Riku.

"What?" he asked although he already knew his upcoming fate.

About five minutes later Riku found himself armored up with thrown away plastic boxes and a giant piece of wood.

"Why am I doing this again?"

"Because it will distract everyone and that will give Demyx and me enough time to snipe everyone else from behind. Cool?" Kairi was excited about her newest battle plan and couldn't wait to try it out. Sadly Riku would have to settle with getting paint and bruises all over him. She gave him thumbs up gesture and probably a smile under the mask, and then left to go around to the other side.

Wearing that dented plastic box made Riku feel like a jack-in-the-box with a shield as he walked out onto the gravel plain. Almost immediately Axel shouted "There's one!" and commenced firing. The paint bullets pinged against the wood and Riku could only imagine what the other side of it looked like. After a few moments another person started firing then another and forced him to get closer to the shield.

_Just have fun with it. Remember what Sora said. _Riku inched closer to the apartment building and away from the forest. _Hurry up Kairi!_

At long last the peppering of paint ceased and Riku took a chance peeking over the handheld barricade. All opponents (Axel, Roxas, Hayner and Ollette) were facing the other way and firing at the newfound guerillas Demyx and Kairi.

_Now's my chance! _Riku picked up Pence's Spyder, turned the safety off with some difficulty and shot wildly in the direction of the other team. In surprise Axel turned around to be battered with dye along with Hayner too. The paintball gun was much stronger than Riku originally thought.

"What the hell?" Roxas yelled and fired with more skillful aim at Riku. The first shot merely stuck to the plastic but the second, third and fourth hit directly on the torso.

"Ow!" The pain wasn't bad but to make a show of it and cause Roxas to stop firing he yelled out in agony. The sniper was then shot down by Kairi who took full advantage of the flank maneuver.

"We won!" Demyx shouted out with glee. He and Kairi highfived with incredible corniness then rushed over to congratulate Riku.

_Finally I can take off this box._ Riku threw it back at the forest and marveled at the numerous paint splats on the wooden shield. As he was doing this Kairi surprised him with a hug and tackled him to the ground. Riku's pale face turned incredibly red.

"We won because of you! Thank you so much!"

On the ground Riku tried to say something but couldn't harness the words. What came out was, "Uhhhh, thanks. Can I get up now?"

With a laugh, she said, "Sure." Accidentally he brushed his hand against her butt as he tried to get up and out of the terribly embarrassing hug position.

_I'm dead if Roxas saw that..._

**Thanks for reading and sticking with the story this far everybody and don't forget to review! The next chapter will be interesting, I promise.**

**Photo88**


	7. The Calm Before

**7**

**The 7th chapter of Illumination**

**It currently does not have a title other than chapter 7 but I am looking for good names. I am so sorry that I haven't updated in a while. I had exams.**

Riku got out of the silver Escalade and waved at its occupants with reserved sociability as he stepped onto the busted pavement. Demyx, Ollette, and Kairi waved back.

"That was fun," He said to himself as he approached his shabby house. The door was locked and Riku had to use the spare key hidden under a rusty statue to get inside.

"Mom, I'm back!" Riku waited for a response yet none came. He raced about, but Aerith was nowhere.

_Don't jump to conclusions. She's out somewhere._

It was difficult, but eventually Riku settled down and rested on his bed. He still had a minor paint splatter on his over-sized sweater. He took it off and threw it carefully on the floor. He scratched his neck where a few flecks of paint still nestled. He had to wash it off in the bathroom.

Riku turned on the faucet and plugged the drain. When there was enough water he turned it off and splashed the water onto his neck. The paint rolled off his pale skin and fell into the newly colored pool of liquid. He rubbed the orange stain with a paper towel and then something strange happened. Riku began to cry.

Riku rarely cried and this was completely unexpected because he wasn't even remotely sad. He thought that he was just serene. He wasn't embarrassed by it though. He was simply curious as to why it had happened.

_Why am I crying? I'm not even sad. At such a random interval, is this really normal?_

Just as Riku had reached up to his reddening eyes the sound of the opening door echoed down to his ears. It was Aerith.

"Bye!" She yelled out the door laughing. Riku looked out the window and saw the car of Yuffie, the cashier at the Laundromat, driving away. His eyes had stopped watering and he smiled.

"Riku-pfft Ha ha! Are you home?" Aerith shouted laughing.

"Yeah." He walked into the living room where Aerith stood. "What's so funny?" he asked smiling, anticipating the story or joke that would follow.

"Yuffie, she... hehe... she is so funny!" Riku's mother really had lost all control of her chortling, and even though he had no idea what was so comical, Riku started laughing as well.

"So, Yuffie was chewing... gum, and she wasn't supposed to." This is in itself was not even slightly funny, but Riku laughed with Aerith as she remembered some story that he had not yet heard. He suddenly felt bipolar.

Aerith hadn't laughed liked this since Cloud was around, and it was a wonderful feeling to have relived.

Riku woke up feeling wide awake, confidant, and ready for anything as he jumped enthusiastically out of bed. He showered, brushed his teeth a full five minutes, and put on some nice jeans and his only collared shirt. He was hungry so he made himself some eggs and bacon. Breakfast was delicious, but there was too much bacon so Riku wrapped it up in paper towel with a note to his mother which read, "Mom, I'm going up to the grocery store to apply for a job as a bagger. Thanks for inspiring me! Here's some bacon I made. Hope you enjoy it. Love, Riku."

The walk up to the store was pleasant and warm. To make it more interesting Pence and Sora showed up on the way down.

"Hey!" Riku called and watched as they turned around. Sora was in his Destiny Islands Loka Gym T-shirt and pink earmuffs; Pence was wearing what he was wearing yesterday.

"Hey," Pence waved sleepily.

"What's up?" Sora asked blissfully as always.

"I'm going up to the grocery store to apply as a bagger, hence the collared shirt."

"Nice, I've been trying to get a job around here, but it's hard to find open spaces." Sora said.

"Pence or I will help you find work," Riku spoke energetically unlike the normally solemn boy that he was known to be.

"Thanks," Sora responded, "Pence and I are-" He was interrupted by Pence.

"Let me tell it!" Pence broke out of his tired daze. "So Sora, he comes to my house at like 5 in the morning-"

"Seven."

"Six-thirty, and somehow finds his way into my living room. There I am sleeping soundly until he jumps on me like a crazed rapist! He then forces me to get up and go jogging with him." Pence stared at Riku and Riku looked to Sora.

"Is any of this true?" Riku questioned and watched as Sora recalled the event.

"Yeah," He said guiltlessly.

After a few more moments of talking, the trio jogged together down to the food market. Pence barely straggled along. Riku rehearsed lines of the interview that was soon to come. Pence and Sora played the roles of the interviewer and the manager. So that Riku didn't get sweaty on the trip, the joggers made zigzags across the road.

It turns out that there was no interview at all just a paper that Riku had to sign that discussed all the regulations that each employee was to abide by. He received a vest and a badge as well. Riku made sure to set his hours straight and to get paid in cash. His hours were 4-7 on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays and 10-2 on Sundays.

"Are you _sure_ that you want to work on Sundays?" The gangly co-manager asked.

"Uh-huh." Riku just noticed that he had a cross hanging around his neck.

"Fine," he said storming away.

The rest of the day basically played itself out. Riku went home, he told Aerith the good news, picked up Pence's paint ball gun, walked up to Pence's house where Pence and Sora were, and hung out for the rest of the day.

"Seeya. Off to work." He waved to his Mom and threw the dark green bagger's vest over his shoulder. The day started out quite perfect, but it changed quickly. The bagging was so simple it was boring, and Riku had to take his break after an hour and thirty minutes.

_Maybe I should have started work somewhere else._

Eventually, the day finished and Riku began the walk home. As he was humming simply to himself his vision began to blur and his walk became erratic. _Not Again. _To make things worse Axel and Roxas showed up. _Not Now!_

"Hey, look who it is!" Roxas jeered to Axel. Riku turned wildly to face them and lost his balance.

"Don't fall," Axe;lunged forward to knock him down all the way. Riku's tail bone hit the ground harshly and he winced.

_Shit._

"So what's the deal with you and Kairi? Don't tell me that you think I didn't see that butt pat up after paint ball. I'm not blind you fag," Roxas whispered as he bent down next to Riku. Riku scrambled for an excuse for there was no way he could evade them in this current state.

"It was an accident."

"Yeah sure. I knew you were smiling under that mask. Listen," Roxas put his foot on Riku's neck, "I want you to stay the fuck away from my girl! You got it?" Riku couldn't respond because his vision was too blurred. Roxas lifted his foot off Riku's neck then brought it down hard on Riku's jaw smacking Riku's face to the concrete. Again Riku was too jarred to respond with anything, and Roxas's patience was running thin.

"I don't think you understand yet." Roxas lifted Riku up by the collar of his vest then slammed his fist into the side of Riku's nose. Riku's head crashed onto the ground once again and Riku groaned in pain.

"I got it! Leave me alone!" Riku yelled holding his nose.

Roxas got up and Axel harshly kicked Riku in the ribs. "See you around."

_Ow._

**Riku gets beat up, painful but don't stop reading cause **_**I believe in Karma **_**and hey, a review or two would be nice. Seriously, if you read this far a single ten second review would really brighten up my day.**

**Thanks,**

**Photo88**


	8. Forgiving

**8**

Riku simply laid down uncomfortably on the curb for a few minutes to think about what had just happened and to let the dizziness wear off. He then picked himself up, dusted off and limped emphatically back home. His nose was bleeding pretty badly, but Riku let it run down his chin and drip onto the pale white concrete.

"What happened?" Aerith asked loudly once he walked in the door.

"Oh this?" He pointed to his face.

"Yeah, what else! Who beat you up? I'm gonna kill 'em!" She then paced furiously around the room. Riku saw her reach for a cleaning utensil; it was one of her habits to tidy things up when she was angry.

"Mom, it's just a few bruises and-" Riku looked in the mirror at his bent out of shape face. "Oh SHIT!" He held his swollen cheek bone and it stung.

"Riku!"

"Sorry. Just look- look at me! I look like I just came out of bar fight." He kind of did but didn't laugh at the thought.

_I'm__ gonna kill em._ It didn't help that just then the pain of the bruises and scratches just started to kick in.

"Let me get the antiseptic," Aerith said as she ran down the hall.

"Mom! I am fine. I just don't look like it." Other thoughts popped into Rikus mind as he slumped into his room. _What about school? I'll be laughed at the whole day._ Riku's mother kept bothering him and eventually he convinced her to leave him alone after a few minutes.

He was thinking hard and decided to do some pushups to occupy his body while his mind was far away. _I will just tell 'em the truth. I got dizzy then Roxas and Axel took advantage of my temporary weakness and beat me up. Yeah right. Oh Christ._

He moved onto doing pull ups on the bedroom door railing. _What will Pence and Sora think? Pence always wanted an excuse to beat him up, and Sora, well Sora could watch. I should stop thinking now; pretty soon I'll be on the top of a water tower picking people off with a shotgun. _Then he fell asleep to escape only to be showered with terribly realistic nightmares.

Monday was always the worst day of the week; now it was the worst day of the year. Riku would have to sit through class and comments with only the counsel of Sora to help him through the day. Math and English classes would be the first and hardest periods of the day, and Riku tried to tune out the pain that would soon come.

Morning meeting was over too quickly, and Riku looked over at a snickering Roxas and Hayner and then Sora who was blaring techno, oblivious to the world. He thought, _Today's gonna suck. _

Mrs. Lentris walked in the door and gawked when she saw Rikus's bruised face. Sora noticed and took off the headphones.

"Jeez, what happened?" she asked loudly bringing more attention to his face.

"Fell off a bike." He made an exaggerated eyebrow gesture as if to show his final facial expression before smacking into the ground. He wanted to make sure people got a false story of what happened before Roxas or Hayner told them.

"Sorry about that." She walked to her desk. "Math problems are on the board!"

Sora hopped over a desk next to Riku and sat next to him.

"Tell me what really happened." He was serious, no cheesy grin this time.

Riku cracked his neck and moved in closer to talk. "Well, I was walking home from the grocery store, my new job, and Roxas and Axel saw me on the back. You have to know that sometimes, for any strange reason, I get really dizzy and fall over. They got me right as I had that happen and they uhh, well you know, hit me." Pence looked dumbstruck.

"Why now, I mean, they could have beat you up at any time. No offence."

"He thought that I groped Kairi or something like that. I mean, I did, but it totally was an accident."

"How could that be an acciden-"

"That's not important right now. I just got to make it through the day."

Sora paused thinking of what to say, and Riku pretended to get back to his math work.

"So are you gonna get him back somehow?" Riku hadn't thought about retaliation in detail until then. The thought caught him of guard.

"I've always wanted to kick his ass, but he always travels in a group. And Axel, he's pretty strong, I think." Riku said pondering the idea.

"Hey, back on the Destiny Islands, I took an intense fitness training class." Sora responded.

"Here we go again..." Pence cut in.

"Just hear me out," Sora said. "We did long term boxing, karate, and Thai kwon do, like, everything dude." Riku was intrigued.

"Go on."

"Well, I don't mean to be haughty or anything like that, but after a while I became pretty good." Riku tried to imagine Sora in a fight.

"Okay, show me after school what you mean by long term boxing, alright, because I really need to improve my, uhh, form."

"Sure thing."

Math ended soon after Sora and Rikus's conversation, and Riku moved onto English. Roxas and Kairi were in the class at the same period.

Roxas began telling Kairi the story, obviously due to his narcissistic side of things. Her facial expression was blank and interested but seemed to be in another place at the same time. Riku couldn't stand staring at her beautiful face when she was going out with such a disgusting soulless boy. She nodded at the end after Roxas imitated a final punch to the face. It was complete torture.

History was not bad at all. Pence came back from the dentist and couldn't think clearly at all because he was so jacked up on the morphine.

"What the hell happened to your face?" he asked wildly and sat down.

"Fight," Sora responded for Riku.

"More of an ass kicking," Riku mumbled under his breath.

Lunch wasn't bad at all except the lunch lady made a remark and got the table interested. Riku simply told them the truth. Pence was so high off the dentist ganja that he actually went through the lunch line and took random food without paying.

Art was the only place of serenity in the school day, and Riku planned to use it. He was working on a sculpture of a light bulb and just as his muse reappeared, so did Kairi. Riku was not sitting at the normal table that he and Kairi would sit at, and she read what he was trying to tell her. Riku couldn't focus. It took all of his strength not to look up at the ceiling and scream.

At the end of class Kairi got up quickly and cleaned up much faster than normal. Riku did exactly the opposite and dragged on cleaning his clay pallet twice so he wouldn't have to speak with her. Riku actually wanted to just go up to her and ask her what the hell the deal was, but he was far too embarrassed.

As he was walking down the stairs to French class, Kairi finally said something.

"Wait!" she called out. He turned around slowly to the top of the staircase making sure to express his contempt.

"Jesus. I wanted to say that I'm sorry that this happened over such a stupid thing." She stared at her feet and waited for a response.

"It's okay." He smiled. "All I needed to know was that you didn't want it to happen." _Thank you._

"I wanted to make sure that we would still be friends."

"Just don't tell him that we talked."

"Okay." Kairi smiled like an angel. She walked down to give him a hug and walked away.

**Please Review.**


	9. A New Girl

**I ended chapter 8 kind of abruptly so I am basically starting off from there. **

**Chapter ****9**

Riku laughed after a moment of thought and walked down to the French classroom. The room was dark when he got there. He put his books down on his seat before working on his French journal. He kept the lights off. A girl wearing a thin white dress walked in. Her name was a mystery to him for she didn't talk much in class. The girl had incredibly blonde hair and she wore it mostly in front of her eyes. She kept the lights off; she turned to Riku, looked in his direction for a moment, and then walked toward him.

She looked tired and had dark circles under her eyes. Riku could tell that it wasn't eyeliner because the girl never wore any. He hid his bruised face subtly behind his arm and pretended to scratch his head. The pale blonde girl walked in front of his desk and stared at his face.

"Did you need something?" He asked and she shook her head.

"What happened to your face?" She asked in a light and almost eerie voice.

"I got in a fight." Riku responded.

"Really?"

"Yeah. What's it to you?" He was getting kind of aggravated by the strange girl's prying questions.

"Nothing, I was just curious is all." She sat down in a desk two to the left from Riku. "So who was it?"

"Who was what?"

"Who beat you up?" Riku didn't like how she assumed he had lost the fight but she was right so he answered her.

"Roxas and his friend." he said, his voice drenched with melancholy.

"Don't sound so sad about it. It sounds like it was two on one so it wasn't really a fight at all just a sneak attack." She said quietly yet with enthusiasm.

"You have a point," he acquiesced then asked serenely, "what's your name?"

Namine," She said after a moment.

"Namine," Riku repeated the lucid word softly to himself.

"What's your name?" She asked as if she had just forgotten it.

Riku didn't answer because just then the teacher entered the room. He did, thankfully, know her name, Mrs. Chanel like the perfume which she smelled strongly of.

"Where is everybody?" she asked breaking her no English rule.

"Not sure." He responded. Mrs. Chanel left the room to look for everyone leaving Namine and Riku to their original conversation.

"I'm Riku."

"That's right, I forgot." Riku wondered why he hadn't noticed the blonde girl before

"You usually don't speak up in class, why don't you?"

Namine blinked quickly, allowing her long eyelashes to cut through the air. "I don't know. I just don't have anything to say." She turned away from him and exhaled through her nose.

Riku scrambled to keep the conversation going and changed the subject in an attempt to do so. "So, where are you from?"

"Traverse Town. It's a small town way north from here." Riku visited his uncle who lived there once or twice before. Or maybe that was another town. He didn't know how exactly, but he had heard of it.

"I've been there before. It's a nice place," He said. This statement could have been a lie, or it could have been the truth. He really did not know, but he really needed to say it.

"Have you always lived here?" Namine's first question.

"No, I came here from Hollow Bastion a few years ago when my dad died." Riku cringed inwardly at the memory.

"I'm sorry. Was he a good father?" That was a strange question.

Riku furrowed his eyebrows. "I guess so. I haven't thought about it." That was the truth. He actually hadn't.

"That's good." She took a sweet tart pack out from her pocket and popped it into her mouth. She sucked on it then gestured to Riku asking if he wanted any.

"Oh yeah, sure." She handed him a purple sweet tart. He chomped it down.

"Oh come on," she said randomly with the candy in her cheek.

"What did I do?"

"You just bit right through the sweet tart!"

"So, what's wrong with that?" He smiled.

"Well you gotta suck on 'em," Namine said blatantly.

"Well, _I_ like to crunch 'em down so I can talk normally."

"But haven't you ever savored the taste of the-" she pulled out the pack of sweet tarts, "hydrogenated glycerol and blue dye #4?" She smiled back.

"It's like jumping into a cold pool. You gotta make it quick."_ Wait a minute..._

"Doesn't that defeat the purpose of the candy?" If he was really trying he could have avoided that loophole, but he just liked joking with this new strange girl. Sadly, their conversation was interrupted by a mob of kids that immediately took over the French room.

Mrs. Chanel yelled over the noise of the hallway and the classroom. "I found them!"

It turns out that there was a fire drill that certain classrooms heard because there was something wrong with the speaker system.

At the end of school Namine saw Riku and waved. "Bye!" he yelled.

"See you," she responded.

Sora and Pence made a puzzled look.

"What?" Riku asked.

"When did you meet monk girl?" Sora asked controversially.

"Huh? Namine?"

"Yeah, whatsername."

"Don't call her that. She's actually really nice. She gave me a sweet tart."

"Well, that is nice. Those things are a rare commodity these days" Sora then brought up a new topic. "Okay, what kind of fighting do you wish to learn?"

"I'd like to learn judo definitely. I could use my body weight to my advantage."

"Just boxing or something like that," Riku suggested.

"Okay."

_This is gonna be fun._

When everybody arrived at Rikus's house Pence and Riku made a sudden realization.

"Wait a minute. We don't have gloves," Pence commented.

"I know," Sora said and rolled up the sleeves of his shirt and threw his iPod onto the ground. "I won't be going easy either." With that said, Sora socked Pence right in the jaw.

_What the? _Pence took a few step backs.

Riku felt his abdomen crumble with a punch from Sora's fist. As he was recovering from the surprise Sora pulled him to the ground easily by putting his leg behind Rikus's knee. Thankfully Sora didn't attack again yet but instead charged Pence and dropkicked him. But Pence was too big for that and merely lifted his hand up to send Sora to the ground. But within half a second the speed demon Sora punched Pence's rib cage and then upper-cutted Pence back.

By then Riku was on his feet and wanting to get Sora back. Riku swung in the Islander's direction. The punch clunked on the back of Sora's head and left Riku with a hurting hand. Sora came at him instantly after with a flurry of punches. Riku got hit 60% of the time but thanks to his makeshift stance he blocked and got a jab or two in. Sadly, Sora didn't react much. This was completely out of character for him. Pence came to, finally, and he bear hugged Sora from behind. _Now I'm open to attack! _Not so, Sora simply kicked Riku on the forehead and made Pence fall backwards onto his back.

After about ten minutes of this Riku was bruised and tired. Sam, on the other hand, had nearly passed out. And Sora was bouncing on his toes ready for more.

"Enough!" Riku yelled out before another onslaught.

"What? We just got started," Sora looked at Sam, "Oh. Okay. Let's get him inside and have some drinks."

Aerith was there in the living room reading when they entered holding Pence.

"What the hell happened?"

"Fighting," Riku puffed out.

"Can you go one day without coming home all beat up?"

**That's chapter 9 for you, hope you liked it. Please Review.**

**Photo88**


	10. One More

**10**

Kairi stood very still on the edge of the orphanage porch and looked out at the lamp lit street. There was chatter inside the building. It was hard to decipher what they were saying. She turned around and saw Sora doing pushups with a small kid on his back. He was skinny but he was really strong.

She was thinking about Roxas and Riku.

She liked them both. Roxas was really funny and good looking, but Riku was really, really good looking and so kind. _I hate this stupid world; I wish that I was allowed to date both of them at the same time._ She reached into her pocket and took out a small wooden figurine. It was a penguin, her favorite animal. Roxas had carved it for her. She kissed it and put it back in her pocket. Then she felt a bruise from paintball and thought of Riku.

_I hate this stupid world._

Riku sat on his bed after Pence and Sora had left and rubbed his head which had been pounded by Sora's fists on several occasions. He was really a good fighter for being so skinny!

_Guess it has nothing to do with muscles._

He took a sip of water and went to sleep quickly.

The next morning Riku felt even sorer than he had on the Monday after being beat up. It even hurt to stretch.

"Mom! Help me out of bed!" he yelled, his voice cracking from the grogginess. She didn't answer him.

"Great." He slumped out of his bed and crawled into the shower. He laid there in the scalding water until he felt awake enough to move again and walked off into the kitchen to a breakfast of the grocery store's version of Lucky Charms.

At school Riku got even more stares and sideward glances even more than yesterday. This time he didn't mind them though because they were pretty much self-inflicted.

In lunch Pence was covered in band-aids and had trouble chewing because of the hits Sora kept getting on him. Riku didn't have it quite as bad except his field of vision was slightly intruded by a bruised eyelid. Demyx came over halfway through lunch and sat down in an empty seat.

"Hey," Riku looked up. "Dude... Can I ask what happened?"

"Sora, you tell him."

"Okay." Sora was the only one at the table besides Demyx who wasn't completely beaten. "So I taught them how to fight-"

"And we still suck!" Pence jutted in rubbing his temple.

"Apparently," Demyx said quietly so that only Riku heard. He laughed.

"No pain no gain," Sora said but something caught Riku's eye.

Namine was sitting at a table alone. Her blonde hair hung in front of her eyes, and Riku wondered how she could see the words on the page with so many obstacles. She wore a white tee shirt and jeans. She looked content reading her book and eating her apple but nonetheless he still went over to her table.

"Hey." He sat down across from her and Namine looked up.

"Hi." She smiled.

"Why are you sitting there all alone?"

She looked around and down at her book. "I'm reading." Riku made a face that said 'oh really' and breathed out through his nose.

"You can read at home. Why don't you go sit with your friends?"

She paused and then put her hand over her eyes.

_Wait, I think she's crying. Now what do I do!_

"Namine? Are- what's wrong?"

She looked up from her hand barricade, and he could see that her tired looking eyes were welling up with tears.

"I- uhh," Riku fumbled with his words and then walked to the other side of the table and sat down next to her.

"I don't have any friends," she squeaked out and sniffled.

"I'm your friend," Riku said in an attempt to better her mood.

"Thanks." She smiled turned and stared at him.

_She's really pretty. Where did that come from?_

He smiled. "Hey, why don't you come and sit at our table?"

"Okay."

She grabbed her book and metal lunch box and walked with Riku.

He told her the details on the walk over. "So the fat Japanese guy is Pence. Don't tell him I said that," she laughed, a good sign, "the tan guy is Sora, and the guy in skater apparel is Demyx."

She sat down next to Riku and looked at the faces staring at her then spoke quietly.

"Hi." She said meekly.

"Hey guys. This is Namine, and she will be joining us for lunch." Riku made a hellish face at the ones who still had an accusing expression on their faces. They (Pence and Sora) stopped immediately.

"So, Namine, what math are you in? You're apparently not in any of our classes." Demyx asked.

"Calculus." She was apparently oblivious to the fact that that was the highest math course in the school.

"Holy Crap." Pence was behind one and was taking geometry with the freshmen. "Are you like some kind of super genius?"

"I guess," She affirmed, "I just study a lot and it comes to me easily."

"Well I feel stupid," Demyx mumbled. There was a lengthy pause. Then Sora brought out the techno which was never a good sign so Riku gave him a good kick in the shin and watched his expression change wildly.

Sora got the idea and spoke up.

"Well, you're probably wondering why these lard asses are so bruised." She nodded. "Well, we fought yesterday." She looked interested and Sora looked proud.

"I'm sorry to hear that." Namine said casually and the islander continued.

"You see, Riku, Sam, and I are training," He gave a look to Riku that asked 'can I tell her?' which Riku responded to by nodding. "-training in the arts of martial so that we can take down almighty Roxas and end his reign of terror on the unpopular populace. Quote, unquote, sensei Sora."She thought before responding immediately.

"That's magnanimous of you." She said eloquently. "I once knew a girl who left the school because of him. I really don't like that guy."

_She probably was just thinking about her. _Riku thought to himself and realized why she tea red up so easily.

"Yeah, what made you hang out with him Demyx?" Pence asked.

"I was power hungry. Heh, yeah he invited me to join his gang because of my skateboarding... finesse, you could say." Riku realized that Demyx had just done one of the noblest things possible. He joined Sam, Sora, and Riku's feeble group and left the safest position in school for them too.

Namine ate the rest of her apple and threw it away.

"So why exactly is she here?" Sora whispered loudly leaning in over the table.

"She's going through a tough time in her life. For cryin' out loud, she's sittin' alone at the table, and did you even hear what she said? Her friend just left the school." Riku was adamant in sticking up for this new interesting girl, and he didn't know why. He felt like Demyx.

**Ha!**

**There you go, some Naminaction. Well, not really but if I advanced the story any faster then my poor typing fingers would snap right off.**


	11. At the Movies

**11**

Riku walked home and listened to the techno that pulsed in his ears. Sora had given him an MP3 player with his best techno songs on it so he could get into music. It was relaxing, and calmed him down before as he arrived at the house. The reason he was so excited was because after school he was going to the movies with Sora, Sam, and most importantly, Namine. She had become a regular at their table, and his group of friends had grown to except her as one of the gang. She had survived a kind of an initiation.

_She really needs to get out more._ He thought back to when he asked her if she wanted to come.

_"__Sure, I'll bring 20 dollars for my ticket," She said. "And I'll bring some sweet tarts."_

_'Ok how bout you bring half of that. The ticket is only about 7 bucks."_

He laughed at the memory and took a last stride up to the door step of Pence's light green duplex. He didn't bother ringing the doorbell for Pence said that as long as his Dad was still asleep it was alright to walk right in. That is exactly what he did.

Upstairs Sam, Demyx, and Selphie, Demyx's gorgeous girlfriend were playing Xbox.

"Damn it!" Pence yelled as Riku walked subtly in unnoticed. Pence looked ridiculous as he angrily held his videogame controller tightly in his hands. Demyx and Selphie high-fived each other with extreme corniness after an apparent virtual victory.

"Oh, hey Riku." It took Pence a full five seconds to realize that a fourth being had entered the room and had taken abidance on the blue ottoman in the corner.

"Hey, how are things?" He mispronounced 'are' to 'aw' and it made him sound British.

"Crappy!" The heavy boy exclaimed, "They are kicking my butt! You gotta help me out dude."

_Uh oh_. Riku was miserable at video games of any kind and changed the subject erratically to avoid future embarrassment.

"This fine young lady must be Selphie. Ah yes, I've heard much about you from our mutual friend Andrew." Riku got up and systematically rapped his fingers on a wall. He was about to die from the internal laughter that he was holding in at the sight of Demyx's face.

"Please introduce us, my fine friend," he added an extra tinge of British accent just to annoy Demyx more.

"Uhh, Selphie this is Riku, my friend who is probably suffering from multiple personality disorder at the moment."

"Ho ho ho, don't let him fool you my pretty. I am always like this- nah I'm totally kidding I'm not even British."

"Oh, that's good. I was already planning on how to sit far away from you during the show."

Riku was about to tell her about Namine's initiatory outing experience, but Pence broke through their conversation once he realized that no one was playing the game anymore.

"Where the heck is Sora?"

"Yeah, where is he?" Demyx asked as a shadow flickered across his face. Riku looked behind him and right behind Pence stood Sora with an enormous water gun in hand.

"He said 6:30 and it's almost-" Icy water gushed from the nozzle of the water blaster to the back of Pence's head. Pence screamed in agony.

"I told you I wouldn't be late!" The made his escape through the window and Pence charged him spraying the TV with flecks of water as he went. He ran to the window frame and shouted out, "You frickin' fag I'm getting the hose!" Sora would have been offended by such as derogatory term but he didn't take it offensively.

The door bell sounded.

_That's probably Namine. She is the only one civilized to ring it._

"Hey Selphie, be really nice to this new girl because she's really shy and doesn't have many friends, okay?"

She nodded quickly."Sure Thing."

They walked briskly downstairs where Namine stood staring at Pence's snoring father who was watching a baseball game with bottles of Japanese soda strewn about. He was always sleeping, Riku thought about bringing up the topic of narcolepsy later.

_Oh shoot. She probably heard Pence yell from the window._ Riku worried about her getting the wrong impression.

She turned slowly to the staircase where Pence was dripping wet and everyone but Sora was standing. With widened and confused eyes she said, "Hi."

In a moment Riku spoke, "Hey." Without knowing what to say he said, "You're at the right house."

Breaking the silence, Sora came chortling through the front door with a huge water balloon in hand.

"Oh, hey Namine." He threw the balloon out the door as soon as he saw the four on the staircase. It popped. "You ready to go?"

The group of six walked up to the theater and arrived at around 7 o'clock. The sun was nearing its set and the crowds were forming outside.

"What movie are we seeing?" Riku asked. He had wondered this during their entire walk.

Without a second thought Sora spoke, "The new _Dawn of the Dead_ of course. What else is there?" _I do NOT want to sit through 2 hours of mindless gore._

"We were thinking more along the lines of _Strangers and Enemies_," Demyx said for himself and his girlfriend. That was a more intellectual thriller.

"How about that funny one that's making fun of the idiots in baseball?" Pence asked the group. It was more of a statement than a question.

"Hell NO!" Sora stated passionately.

The four argued passionately and this gave Riku a chance to talk to Namine about her opinion.

"So what do you want to see?"

She shrugged.

"Well let's check out our options." Riku started to walk away then turned around seeing how she wasn't following him. "Come on."

There was a horror, an action, a romance, and a science fiction film, not to mention the ones stated earlier, all showing within 20 minutes.

Namine kept staring at the other options, her eyes flitting from one poster to the next. Riku waited patiently.

"Oh right, well, I definitely don't want to see that." She pointed to the action, a corny heroic looking movie with a medieval setting. "And probably not that either." Her tiny finger pointed to the horror show _The Darkest Corner_.

"Either of these two would be fine." She was talking about _The Cylinder_ and _Devotion_ were left. "What are they about?" She asked and turned to Riku. They locked eyes for a moment before Riku could speak.

"Well, _The_ _Cylinder_ is a sci-fi about a guy who comes into contact with aliens. And _Devotion_, well, I don't think that you'd like _Devotion_ much." _There is no way that I will see a romance with a girl I just met. Way too awkward._

"Come on, tell me."

Riku avoided her eyes this time and half mumbled the next statement, "It's about a man who falls in love with his psychiatrist." He said it in a way that wouldn't hurt her feelings if she liked it but spoke in a tone that was mildly grim.

"Now that sounds interesting. Let's see it!" She skipped away leaving Riku in shock.

_Oh dear._ He took a single step forward and accepted the fact that his money earned bagging groceries had to be wasted.

"You don't actually think I'm serious now do you?" She looked back, laughed and crossed her arms. "We'll see _The_ _Cylinder_, if it's alright with you?"

Riku laughed, nodded, and walked with Namine to the ticket booth where an elderly man handed them their tickets.

At the snack booth Riku ordered a box of Sweet Tarts to share and Namine bought a large Sprite. They walked to the ticket stub man quietly until Riku broke the easily broken silence.

"Do you see a lot of movies?"

She shook her head. "No, not really. Do you?"

"I like seeing movies but not much lately."

_Dad died and mom lost her job is all._

"Why not?" she asked and handed her ticket stub to the usher woman.

"Personal reasons." _Maybe I should tell her. No it's too soon, but I will later._

"Screen 4," Namine said. On the walk Pence came out of Screen 3's _Strangers and Enemies_.

"Hey dude," he called out loudly. "Demyx and Selphie got to pick. What movie are you going to see with Namine?" He added the last two words with romantic emphasis.

"_The Cylinder_," she answered for Riku, "NOT _Devotion_."

"Well that's good to know. I'm sure you'll like it. It's really cool and actually kinda funny."

"Cool. See ya." Riku half-waved and walked with Namine into the immense screening room.

**I know kind of an abrupt ending but it doesn't really stop there, the story goes on.**

**Please review it will take two seconds and tell me about it!**

**Photo88**


	12. Diphenhydramine HCL

**12**

**Here we go…**

When Riku sat down next to Namine in the lightly packed theater there was an easily detectable tension in the air. Namine who was new to the whole movie thing and Riku who was trying to make her feel welcome in a new environment both sat down in the comfy seats and watched the pre-previews roll.

Several times Riku tried to begin a sentence, but the words just wouldn't come out of his mouth. This was probably a good thing because most of his planned conversation starters were wise- cracks about the silence your cell phone ads.

_Maybe I could talk about school. might bring up bad memories. Shit, what the hell do I say?_

Little did Riku know but Namine was completely content sitting there by him watching the advertisements of the insurance companies flip on by. She enjoyed the feeling of another person sitting at such close proximity to her; it relaxed her. The effects were obviously was starting to kick in. She couldn't really think straight.

After much waiting and much silence the movie began. The previews were short and only of sci-fi and horror movies. He turned to her when she let out a muffled squeak when a freaky two headed baby came out of the corner.

_Very squeamish. Okay, at least an opportunity to break the silence._

"You alright?" he said quietly.

"Yeah, I'm okay. It's kind of weird, but I'm terrified of evil babies."

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry to hear that." He was extremely glad to be in a jovial conversation with this quiet blond. Even if the topic was morbid and dark the mood and way in which they spoke was bright.

She smiled. "Laugh you may, but it was kind of a sad story."

_Uh oh, keep up the funny stuff though._

"Please, please inform me."

"Well, my parents left me in the care of this babysitter who turned out to be a REAL stoner. So one night they left for the opera, and she put really creepy face paint on me. When I looked in the mirror I thought I was face-to-face with some demon or something." She sighed over dramatically. "Ever since creepy babies scare me, and I try to stay the heck away from makeup."

_She's really funny when she talks. I'll tell her._

"You are really funny."

"Thanks."

"-When you actually talk! How come you never speak up in school?"

"You've asked me this before. I just don't have anything to offer."

"You have a lot to offer I'm sure! You're smart and funny and cute and-"

_How did that slip out? Oh great, I just paused to think about it. That will give her time to respon-_

"What? You think I'm cute?" Namine asked this quickly and quietly. Riku thought about his upcoming response. He waited before he answered in an attempt to slow down the conversation to prevent future slips.

"I do, I really do. And I'm sure other boys do as well but won't tell you unless you talk to them."

She looked at the Sprite in her lap.

"What I mean by that is, I just think you could make friends easier if you reach out a little. Kinda like when you insulted me in French class that time." He joked but he was serious.

"Are you saying that I should just go up to Arnie and make fun of his acne?" She was getting somewhat agitated but kept joking.

"Not exactly," Riku responded trying to keep a neutral tone, "I think you should just join a group or ask someone sitting next to you for help on the next Calculus worksheet."

"Have you done this?" she asked.

"Well, no, but I really know that it would work."

She took a sip of the Sprite. "Okay. I'll do it."

"Thank you."

"Now hand over the Sweet Tarts."

The movie was a lot of fun. Although it had fascinating special effects, Namine and Riku talked the entire time inspiring hush noises from rows near and far. Near the end of the movie one familiar face turned around to silence the two after Riku guffawed when Namine did a perfect impression of their French teacher. It turned out that the usher was Kairi.

"Will you please be quie- Riku?"

"Hey Kairi," Riku said casually. He was surprised but somehow managed to hide it and play it cool. He didn't want to embarrass himself in front of his friend and crush.

"Hey. Haven't talked to you in a while. How are things?"

"They're good. I got a job and am learning how to fight." Roxas rounded the corner and came up the steps with a tub of popcorn. "Yeah, I'm getting pretty good." He finished and ducked down. He did so not out of fear but for Namine so she could finish the movie in peace. Riku was proud of this decision. Namine didn't seem to notice.

Thankfully the dirty blonde bully did not notice them, and Kairi did not say anything to him. The only difference was that Namine and Riku did not speak as loud.

When the film ended Riku walked down the aisle with Namine near the last to avoid detection. She then grabbed onto his arm for some reason. He found himself at a riddling moment. He didn't want to say anything in case it might unnerve Namine, but he was extremely curious of what was going on. He eventually gave in.

"Namine." She let go almost immediately. "Are you alright?"

"No, I'm not. We have to go to brighter place." She sounded like she really had to force the words out as if she was revealing some great secret.

"Okay." They walked out into the movie theater lobby. Because the movie was only an hour and twenty minutes and that they had walked out later than everyone else, the movie hall was almost completely empty.

They sat down next to each other on a bench.

"Now, tell me what's wrong." Riku had expected her to inform him on what was happening but she wasn't talking. She grinded her teeth for her moment and opened her eyes wide. Riku could see that her pupils were incredibly dilated.

"I took 15 Benadryl." She looked him in the eyes and spoke in a loopy kind of voice that was not at all comical.

"What is happening right now?"

"I'm so scared and tired. These drops of rain keep falling on my vision."

_What the hell?_

"Why don't you go lay down in one of the furniture stores, alright?"

She didn't answer. She just crumbled to the floor. "Namine! You got to get up!" Riku whispered harshly. She opened her mouth to talk but made no effort to move. The ticket ripper man was walking in their direction; thankfully he was reading a magazine though. Riku bent over and pulled Namine to her feet.

"Don't yell," she said and shook her head about flicking Riku with her smooth blond hair.

When they arrived at the sadly closed furniture depot Namine laid herself down on a park bench to sleep.

_Now what do I do?_ After a minute or two Namine woke up. "I need water quick. I am real thirsty." She sat up quickly and clumsily. She pushed Riku out of the way so she could get to the water fountain.

**So tell me what you think. I'm sorry about my break I had, well, long story and writing it would delay this story further.**

**Thanks for reading **

**Photo88**


	13. The Ark

**13**

**Don't give up on me now. This is one of the more important chapters in relation to the story.**

When Riku and Namine finally returned back to the movie theater Sam, Sora, Selphie and Demyx were waiting for them outside. It was a difficult journey to get the doped up Namine back but he did after she put her arm around his neck in a non-aggressive headlock for balance. Riku calculated how long they might have been waiting, he figured about twenty five minutes if they got out immediately when they left. Even if they didn't he would still have to tell them where he and Namine went. Not to mention Namine might flip out and then that might need explaining as well.

He went with the ignorant approach. "Hey guys!" He walked up to them and they all turned around surprised.

"Hey. Where did you go?" Riku's mind scrambled for an excuse as time ate through precious seconds.

Halting between words, Riku concocted his answer, "I went to show Namine around town. Our movie ended sooner than yours did, and we didn't feel like waiting." Namine nodded slowly to Riku's benefit.

"Okay," Sora said picking a piece of popcorn from a half full bucket, "let's go back to Pence's house."

"Can't. Our ride is picking us up soon," Selphie said.

Demyx followed up with, "Yeah. I had fun though. Good times."

Happy to have the attention off of himself and Namine, Riku walked agreeably behind Pence and Sora as they talked about the zombie movie that he somehow got everyone to see. Sora was hilarious, always making expressions with his hands and accurate sound effects.

"Remember the part when he stabbed the shears through that Mexican guy's head? That was crazy awesome!" He was like an obnoxious 12 year old kid. People made a point to steer clear of him as they passed on the sidewalk.

Pence nodded and went along with the conversation trying obviously to find a way out by making some connection to a real life experience. It was a shame that Pence did not know many people who were sheared through the head. But eventually he found a loophole. "That redhead who drove the tank was cute huh Riku? Oh yeah you weren't there. What movie did you see?"

Riku at the time was holding Namine by the arm to keep her from dragging on the ground. It looked like they had suddenly become a couple. Pence cocked his head to the side and looked at Riku who gave him a look that said 'Don't ask'. Pence was dying to make a joke about this but refrained from doing so for Riku's sake.

After Riku told him about _The Cylinder_ he brought up a different topic. This reminded Namine who unbeknownst to her current mode of transportation, Riku, was actually paying attention. She was just was having difficulty vocalizing her opinions, not due to her shyness but thanks to the 375 milligrams of diphenydramine running through her system. But after a stumble she managed to ask if anyone had a phone.

Her voice was slow and slurred and caused the three boys to nearly stop in their tracks. Pence had one and quietly offered it up to her. Dialing her parent's house phone took two tries but finally it worked. Thankfully no one asked any questions.

"Mom?"

"Oh, Namine. Hey, Honey, what is it?" Namine's mother responded with a light voice.

"Do you mind if I spend the night at one of Riku's friends' houses tonight. I'm really tired." Riku wondered if her parents knew if Namine was trying new narcotics on a whim.

"Oh sure go ahead. Just brush your teeth."

"I will."

"I love you; call me in the morning, alright?"

"I will. Goodnight." She hung up and handed Pence back his phone.

Everyone arrived at Pence's in a short amount of time. Namine seemed a little better by the time Pence reached for his hidden key under the door mat. Riku very was happy to have her back. When he walked in the door and up to Pence's room Riku felt like he should talk to Namine about everything that happened in the theater and before. When she felt a bit better and when they were in a private place he would tell her about how his mother had gotten into drugs of all sorts as a way of coping with his dad's death.

_I'll just tell her about why it's not good for her. And that will get her to stop._

Riku noticed that Pence's Dad had migrated to his bedroom upstairs. Namine waited outside for Riku to come in and then stopped him from before saying anything. She caught on quick to expressions she knew what he was thinking about.

"I'm fine. I really am. I'm just out of it." Her voice still seemed to have to push the words out of her mouth, but her eyes were nowhere near as dilated. "I know what I'm doing. The lethal dose of that is three times as much as I took."

"That's good." Riku's drug lecture was held off for now. They walked inside where Sora was arming a Mentos and Diet Coke bomb while Pence was in the bathroom. Sora turned and gave a devilish grin to the two and then Namine walked up to the refrigerator for some ice water. She picked up a clean looking glass from the counter and held it to the auto filter on the front of the refrigerator. She drank it all without moving her feet and then filled another glass.

"You look really tired." Sora pointed out. "No offense."

"No, just thirsty," she said in between gulps.

It was about eleven o'clock and Riku, Pence and Sora weren't even tired in the slightest. Namine was nodding off but it was only because of the Benadryl which was wearing off with time. The four were watching an episode of some cop show when a topic came up.

"I saw Kairi coming out of the theater. Did you see her?" Pence initiated the conversation casually.

"Yeah." Riku was touchy about this topic but continued on because he was not concerned about anything at the moment.

"That was a lame answer," Pence said wishing for more gossip, "Well, did you talk to her?"

"Yeah, I saw her in the room that we saw the movie in." Riku spoke slowly because he wished for the issue would dissipate, "I said hello."

"I also saw Roxas coming out," Sora mentioned.

"Yeah, I saw him too."

Sora understood that it was a delicate matter that need not be brought to light while Namine was in the room. So he stayed quiet until conversation arose again and all four were laughing about the dramatic occurrences on the TV.

At around 12:50 Namine was wide awake and the others were getting more tired by the minute. In fact Namine had secretly taken a caffeine pill about an hour ago, one of the many assorted pills she had in her purse. So as the clock shifted from PM to AM she became less of a bystander and transformed into the life of the party. Riku was not very tired, unlike the appearance that he put on. He often had trouble sleeping but never was diagnosed with Partial Insomnia. He used this time to talk to Namine about the pressing matters at hand.

"Hey," he whispered as she got out of the bathroom from brushing her teeth. "We need to talk."Riku was serious but not in a menacing way at all.

"Okay," Namine relented. "Tell, Pence thanks for the toothbrush I hope he doesn't mind I opened one from under his sink."

"He'll be fine with that."

They went downstairs to the living room where there were no potential eavesdroppers.

He got right to the point, "Is this your first time trying to get high?" She wasn't surprised by his forwardness; she had been expecting a similar question all night, but still took a moment to answer.

"No," she shook her small head, "But it's not bad for me."

"Are you kidding? Those damn sleeping pills are the same kind that my mother took when she was trying to kill herself!" Riku was angry now but still he whispered, he didn't get angry often and didn't know how to express the emotion well.

"Why, would she ever want to do that?" Her eyes looked to the floor. "I am so sorry."

Riku's eyes fogged up and he began to cry. "I don't want something like that to happen to anyone else."

His thoughts traveled back to 9th grade when he came home and found his mother leaning sloppily on the toilet seat, puking and sputtering and crying in her sick demented dreams that had been summoned by the Benadryl. He dropped his bag and ran to her side. He turned her over and checked her quivering pulse. He ran outside to a neighbor's door for a phone since his house didn't have one at the time. His knockings were unanswered until finally someone answered and handed him their phone. The ambulance arrived shortly and they pumped her full of physostigmine to save her from permanent brain damage.

Namine wrapped her thin arms around him, not much for protection or warmth but the gesture was all that was needed. Riku clutched her back and sobbed into her shoulder to halt the noise from reaching upstairs. She pulled him away for a moment and pushed her face close to his so that their noses and cheeks touched. His cold tears transferred to her cheek and her tears transferred to his. Riku felt better once more. "Thank you," he said and looked at where he had rested his head, "Sorry." Her shoulder had a noticeable wet spot where his eyes were.

She responded with a loving kiss on the cheek. She said goodnight and scurried upstairs to where she and Pence had prepared a bed for her. Riku sat there for a moment.

**This may have taken a while to type out and I'm sorry about that but please tell me what you think of it.**

**Photo88**


	14. Advances

**14**

**Hope you like!**

Riku felt good the next Monday, which was unusual seeing how he just saw his crush kissing his enemy only two nights before. The wind was icy as it scraped across his exposed cheek. In Twilight Town the weather was always cold, and Riku was happy about it. In fact he could care less about the weather because he had a matter of importance on his mind. Namine's kiss.

_It wasn't really a kiss because it was only lip to cheek contact._

Riku had kissed a girl once before at camp a year back, but that was only a spin the bottle kind of thing. This had feeling involved or something.

School didn't faze him at all and his thoughts were preoccupied through Math and the beginning of English. Sora asked him what had happened to Namine before the sleepover that made her so loopy. Riku's senses returned to him but before he could respond to Sora's question something occurred.

Kairi walked into the room wearing the most gorgeous outfit that Riku had ever seen on anyone. She seemed to glow like an angel the way the light from the window hit her skin. It took all of Riku's strength not to stare. Everyone ended their current conversations and glanced if not looked at Kairi because she looked absolutely voluptuous. She had dark blue jeans on and a tight fitting blouse that flared out at her wrists. It was like the first day that she came to school again except today Roxas, as Riku quickly checked, was nowhere to be found.

But Riku did manage to find a feeling of courage that was hiding deep inside of him. It urged, almost forced him to go and speak to the dissimilated beauty that sat thankfully close to him.

"Hey," Riku called.

"Hey," she returned and glanced over at him. He didn't know what to say, but he was pressed on by the eyes that were burning into his skull.

"I saw you at the movies last weekend."

"Yes you did."

"How are you and Roxas doing?" He thought to breach an interesting topic in case the conversation got dull.

She looked up at him. _I hope I didn't upset her. _But she wasn't mad."Now that you mention it, not so well. After the movie we had kind of a fight."

"I'm sorry about that. Tell me what happened."

"Well, I went back to his house and, umm. I'll tell you in Art. It's too loud in here."

"Okay." He walked back to where Sora and Pence were sitting and told them to never mind it.

Art arrived finally after a long day of waiting and anxiety to hear what happened with Kairi and possibly her ex-boyfriend. He walked into the class to see only Kairi inside. Not even Mr. Card was in. Riku walked up to her and sat down. He was still somewhat surprised at how good she looked. She was looking out the window, and she quickly turned around when Riku walked in through the door as if her thoughts were embarrassing and were worth hiding.

Out of curiosity Riku asked, "What were you thinking about?" She took a few seconds to respond.

"I was thinking about what I was going to tell you."

"Was going to tell me? Did you change your mind about sharing the story?"

"No. Okay. Umm, So I went back to his house, and he and I were kissing," Riku half cringed to hear the obvious aloud, "and he says that he wants to go more. I didn't want to so I made up an excuse to leave the room. Roxas doesn't like that and he'd been drinking so... He started to yell and curse." She slowed her speech. Before he knew it they were both standing.

"Then what happened?" Riku asked sensing that someone could enter the room at any moment.

"I ran from him." She breathed once heavily. "Being drunk he chased after me, and he hit his head."

_That's probably why he's not in school today._

"He missed today because of it. I don't know what to do."

_DUMP HIM!_

"I know you know what you need to do." Riku tried to sound wise but it came out looking like he was quoting someone.

"I do too." She reached out and tapped on the table.

She gazed up into his eyes and at that moment Riku realized that he was actually kind of tall, at least taller than this angel who was pressing her hand onto his. She put her other petite hand on his chest and walked up close so that their bodies collided.

_Oh my God. This is it_

She cocked her head to the side and moved closer toward him. She whispered, "You weren't paying attention this morning meeting. We don't have Art today." Her lips were an inch from his and he was still, as motionless as a statue. All he could say was, "What do you know." He breathed in a whiff of her vanilla perfume and closed his eyes for just a second, appreciating the scent. Then he felt Kairi's silky lips touch his somewhat chapped ones. All he could think of was appreciating the moment in all its wonder.

He loved the feeling of her so close to him. It was indescribable how he felt about her at that moment and how much rejoice and ecstasy he was feeling. Within five seconds, he felt himself becoming dizzy.

_Please, not now._

To compensate for it he rested himself on the table, but Kairi still pursued. Their lips stayed locked and she continued to kiss him even as he almost fell over. He opened his eyes for a moment to check his surroundings and to make sure Mr. Card wouldn't interrupt their intimate and wordless discussion. He wasn't there and Riku closed his eyes once again, or they really just closed on their own.

When their period of kissing ended with a pull away by Riku he just sat there on the table looking up every few seconds at either Kairi or some other object in the room. Kairi apparently didn't know what to say either. It wasn't an aggressive pull away, Riku just felt the urge to because of their location.

Kairi spoke once again, "Roxas and I are probably going to stop dating. It's not working."

A feeling of calm rushed over Riku. "That's good." _That was mean I shouldn't have said that._

"I know," She responded vanquishing his fear of offending her.

_This is turning out to be one hell of a day._

**Ahh that's Amore...**

**So my first kissing scene hope you enjoyed it.**

**Please areview.**

**Thanks Photo88**


	15. Changing Earth

**15**

**Sorry for not updating in a while, a long time, decades, but I just got a load done and it will be out shortly.**

Riku's mind was a mess. The rest of his day went by as a blur. Ever since his make out session with Kairi, he couldn't focus on anything for more than a few seconds without reverting back to that savory moment. The rest of the day consisted of him thinking of her and her delicious lips.

_She was perfect in every way._ This was his final conclusion but not his final thought. Through the school day, the walk home, and even in his dreams his mind was filled with images of Kairi. This was how it was for that day and the next, very mentally productive.

At dinner the next day his mother brought up the idea of transport. "So are you thinking about getting a car?" she asked between bites of tomato pie. "I mean, it wouldn't just be for you. I'd help pay and it would be the new family car," she continued.

"Huh? I don't know."

"Oh come one. Isn't there a special girl at school that you'd like to drive to the movies?" His ears perked up with interest.

"Yeah," he confessed slowly, tasting the words as they were said, "There is."

"I thought so." She put another spoonful of food into her mouth and left Riku to his thoughts. He had enough money to rent a really junky vehicle, but with his mothers help he could lease a reasonable quality vehicle. He went to the newspaper lying on the living room table and flipped through the pages for the classifieds automotive section. In every car pictured he imagined himself sitting with Kairi, staring deep into each other's eyes.

After some searching he found the right vehicle: A '95 silver sedan with bad mileage but a reasonable price. He cut out the ad from the newspaper and put it under a magnet on the refrigerator; he just hoped it didn't stink.

At school the next day, the beginning of the second full day that he had a girlfriend he noted, Riku finally told the guys about what had happened between him and Kairi. Demyx, Sora and Pence stared with wide eyes and open mouths as he told the story.

"Dude, that is so awesome," Pence practically yelled.

Riku hushed him, "Keep it down alright; they're not officially broken up."

"What is this?" Sora asked.

"I'll fill you in with the details at lunch, but this is good news!"

"Okay." Sora and the other two spread out to go do their own things. Just as that happened Kairi walked into Riku's face just as he was turning around. He yelled in surprise and her forehead collided with his nose.

"Ow." He squinted and rubbed his nose. "You dope." He joked and pushed her casually and she pushed back against his chest. She was smiling, this was a good sign. He was worried that she might have been hurt in the crash.

"You really need to watch where you are going," she said.

"And you need to stop being so magnetic. I find myself, attracted to you." She laughed. "Do you wanna meet up after school?"

"Okay."

"We could walk up to the Green Café or something." That was a common place where people liked to hang out after school, at least the cool kids did. At least that was what Riku had heard.

"Or maybe we could go back to your place," Kairi said seductively and traced a line up and down his chest. It made it impossible for him to refuse.

"Definitely," he almost blubbered then continued, "And tell Roxas, it's over, I'm tired of keeping this a secret." _I'm pushing it. I should have just shut up._

"But I like keeping it a secret, just you and me." She looked down at her feet then back up into Riku's eyes, "Fine, I'll tell him that we're broken up." He smiled and then she saw that the hall was nearly empty. With a wave she left.

_I am so friggin lucky._

The class went by slowly. Riku busied himself by drawing tessellations and patterns. His teacher explained some useless concept and droned on and on but when the time finally came he was the first to leave the room. Mr. Kennedy, however, had other plans.

"Riku, you forgot your homework." He pointed to a pile of papers on her desk. Riku walked hurriedly through the oncoming traffic of ambulating students and awkwardly placed desks. He picked up a printed piece of paper off his desk, but Mr. Kennedy stopped him again.

"You're gonna want this one." He pointed to a different pile. "Actually I've been meaning to talk to you. Third quarter is just…"

_Oh great. Speed it up buddy. _Mr. Kennedy rambled on for minutes without a pause, except to pick the perfect word for his statements. Riku wasn't listening; he was only nodding at certain times and noting his teacher's change in expression and tone so that he could know exactly when to leave. Finally the moment arrived, and he could exit.

Riku scanned the hallway through the bustling masses for any sign of Kairi. Her red hair was often a dead giveaway but not this time.

_Maybe she waited for me then got caught up in something else. Freakin teacher._

He decided to procrastinate and find a friend. Now that he noticed it, he had been kind of distant over the last few days because of her.

By Namine's locker there was a new girl getting textbooks out of her pack. Riku's heart sank as he realized that the girl was at Namine's locker exactly and then Kairi again when he realized that it was Namine. He saw her body and clothing but her hair was drastically shorter. He looked for a bit longer, slightly stunned, and saw Kairi and her friend Ollette standing by Namine talking to her.

_I didn't know she knew Kairi. Maybe they just met._

Kairi and her friend walked away together leaving Namine looking in her locker. Riku went straight to his class. Now that he thought of it, he had never really brought up the subject of Kairi with Namine. At that moment Riku realized that his relationship with Namine was a complete mystery to him.

At lunch Riku found Namine sitting alone. It was the same place he had found her reading so long ago. Just like then he walked over and took a seat by her where he attempted to make conversation.

"Hey," he said lightly. She didn't respond and had no excuse except her food to take her attention. Her new hairstyle was so striking; he wasn't used to seeing so much of her pale face.

"Why don't you talk? I know you're thinking about something." She didn't look up or say anything but Riku waited.

"I don't want to talk."

"You sound silly; usually you're so mature about these kinds of things." He paused giving her a chance to speak but she didn't take it. "How do you know Kairi?"

"I don't," she lied.

"Then why were you two talking?" Nothing. "Can you even hear me?" He was getting frustrated but calmed himself in the wake of Namine's feelings. "Namine, all I wanna do is help."

For a minute they both sat still, he looking at her closed mouth and she looking at her basically untouched food. Then she stood up and walked toward the exit. Riku caught up to her after a moment as she rounded a table. They continued out the doorway and through another grade's hallway to an empty stairwell. She stopped and stared at a wall, trapped. _Now she has to talk. Just please don't cry._

There was a silence and right when Riku was about to say something Namine spoke.

"I want to kill that lying slut."

**Tell me what you think.**


	16. Safari

**16**

**New chapter in, from Namine's point of view.**

Namine had begun the day like any other; she was awoken harshly by her alarm clock. She groaned and scraped the sand from her eyes, brushed her teeth and pulled some clothes from her closet. She stripped off her pajamas and walked to the shower pausing briefly to frown at her unshapely figure. She turned on the water and started to wash her hair. She cleansed it twice, each time with a different shampoo. First she used a citrus scented shampoo then a shining conditioner. _If I don't look good then at least I will smell good._

After dressing in her bland clothing she walked downstairs to the breakfast table while combing her hair. She combed while eating fruit salad to save time. Her hair was really the only thing she liked about herself, the only thing she wouldn't change. She ate the fruit salad slowly and listened to her parents discuss something political. They were nice parents, just a little oblivious to things. They were so busy focusing on the world outside their own home that they hadn't the energy to look inward and care for their own child.

Namine thought about Kairi while she waited for the right time to leave. A few days prior, she and some of her friends pushed Namine around and threatened to beat her up. She didn't think that they would do it, but she was still scared. Kairi's words echoed around in her mind. "Don't go near him. You'll regret it." This was a difficult task, first of all, Namine enjoyed Riku's company a lot, but he also always asked her to sit with him when she sat alone. She couldn't do anything without hurting herself or Riku.

She looked up at the clock. It was time. "See you," She said quietly and left with her book bag over one shoulder.

"Bye Honey. So yeah, the taxes can't be adjusted because-" Her mother said and waved. The door cut her off before she could hear any more of their discussion.

The bus arrived several minutes later by the stop sign at the end of her street. She was annoyed because wherever she decided to sit some stinky fat kid would crush her against the window by the end of the bus ride.

_So much for smelling nice,_ she thought as she braced herself and provided room for Zach's enormous ass.

At school she glided through Calculus, Biology, and her electives. Finally it was lunch, and instead of following Kairi's orders to sit alone she sat with Riku where she could relax.

Before he had picked her off her table of loneliness, she had been fine. Lunch was a place where she could read her books and eat in peace. This used to be relaxing for her, but now when she tried it she felt anxious and lonely. It was a blessing and a curse that Riku had come to her. She had seen what it was like to have friends, which was nice, but now she couldn't turn from that back to her old life.

Riku was the sweetest to her but Pence and Sora became nice too after a while. Sadly even though she was falling for Riku he was only interested in being friends. She would have to settle, watch while he became more and more infatuated with Kairi. As the group conversed amongst themselves, she thought that she was unworthy of their company. And she was most definitely unworthy of Riku's love.

But why did he have to fall for Kairi?

To get her mind off the topic, temporarily, Namine listened to Sam, Demyx, Selphie and Riku talk. She listened to what they said and added in her opinions when provided with an opportunity.

"Hold up. You want to just sit in a wheelchair and roll around, even though you're completely fine?" Demyx asked.

"I think that sounds like a good deal." "That'd be great." Pence and Riku acknowledged their desires in turn. Pence continued, "You could get special treatment and perks. Imagine never having to walk again." He made a face that said _Interesting hypothesis Watson_.

"That's retarded," Sora commented.

"What about stairs?" Namine added in.

"Well…" Pence pondered.

"You would lose all credibility if you just picked up the wheelchair you were just riding in and ascended the steps," Selphie offered.

"I could just ramp off the curb if it's outside and inside. I won't go anywhere that doesn't have an elevator." A few of them laughed. He continued, "Help me out here Riku."

"Yeah, that would… work," Riku said slowly. Throughout the whole of the conversation and lunch Riku's mind was off running some mental marathon. He was tuned out of reality and tuned into his romantic fantasies starring Kairi.

_How could someone like him go for such a whore? She's the worst. Here I go again…_ _It was bad enough that Kairi was sleeping with Roxas, let the two rot together, but she was still tempting Riku, and succeeding_.

Namine knew what was happening because had overheard Kairi and Ollette talking about it and other cases of adultery. It was not only Roxas though; she had relations with another boy from some different school. She was a master of manipulation. She wasn't even an orphan! Namine had done some internet stalking during her free time and wasn't proud of it but she found a few things interesting. During the Destiny Island murders seven people died. Kairi's last name, however, was not on the list. Namine had figured that her parents were probably still alive and well and that Kairi was probably shipped to the orphanage because the circumstances were right in order to save her being sent to a juvenile detention center. Kairi probably committed several criminal acts and it was too much for her parents. To continue harboring someone like that would be humiliating. Namine also figured that her parents' lifelong disgust with Kairi's acts had spawned the malicious intent in Kairi's heart.

Being disloyal and manipulative was Kairi's worst trait. Namine could also be cruel at times. She endured taunts and drilling comments often, mostly from Kairi or Ollette. A slam into the locker as she walked by with her preppy friends was also common and getting more common recently. This confirmed Namine's suspicions that Kairi had officially planted her flag in Riku. This was a depressing time. Namine had lost the battle for Riku by a landslide, and now Kairi was going to start warping his perception of reality.

Riku and Namine's ideas of Kairi were polar opposites: she hated her guts, and he loved everything about her.

After lunch and a few classes it was time for gym, one of Namine's least favorite classes. People always passed the ball to her even when they knew she had no idea how to play. It was really embarrassing, but for Namine everything was embarrassing. Just living in her own body was torture.

After the period was over, Namine walked to her locker in the now empty locker room. She always waited for it to empty before entering so that she wouldn't have to deal with rowdy freshmen girls or Kairi and her friends. She opened the locker and changed out of her gym shorts. As she was changing back into her clothes she heard the locker room open again and heard three pairs of feet walk inside.

_Just leave me alone._

"Hey." It was Kairi. Namine didn't turn around to see her angelic face, but felt the vibrations of the word as it echoed through her. She felt the anger and evil intent in it and knew that this instance of hassling wasn't going to end well.

She didn't respond.

"I remember telling you to stay away from Riku. He's mine," Kairi said hatefully. "He doesn't want you near him anyways. The only reason he invited you to sit at his table was out of pity. He saw how pathetic you are and wanted to help."

She paused for a minute to let her words sink in. Had Namine turned around she would have seen the six hateful eyes. Kairi's eyes, those evil, beautiful eyes. They were set on her like a lioness on a zebra. Her mascara dipped lashes were the tall grasses she could hide behind and attack when ready. She was about to be torn to shreds by her teeth.

The lioness' teeth were a pair of scissors, and the zebra's body was Namine's hair. She heard it snip through the air and felt Ollette and Samantha grab her arms. Her eyes were closed and her head bumped against the back of the bench that she was held against. Kairi got to work immediately, cutting her bangs, and sides drastically shorter. She felt her beautiful hair leave her head and float down to the floor. Namine remained still while this happened, with a placid expression on her face. This was an attempt to give as little pleasure to Kairi and her followers as she could.

When they were finished, they left her there without any parting remark. She felt like she had been violated. When the door closed she sprang up and opened her eyes. Her vision was not blocked by her once long bangs anymore. Her head felt light as she shook it and a few remaining strands fell down to her shoulders.

In the restroom section of the locker room Namine shook her head and scraped away the small hairs that were still trying to hide. When she looked in the mirror she saw a girl staring back at her with an empty expression. She had hair that looked like a bum's. After looking at her lopsided haircut from different angles the girl in the mirror started to cry. Namine cried with her. There was nothing to hide behind, no shield.

_Oh my god. This is bad._ Her thoughts couldn't form into complete ideas and were scattered around with different negative emotions. Hate, despair, confusion and mixes of those, a whole spectrum of sadness was in her mind.

After crying she scraped up her bags and ran out to the bus in the nick of time. She got on with her eyes read and unguarded by her lopsided hair. People stared and whispered but she didn't care anymore.

**Hopefully some plot holes are filling up. Please review if you liked it.**


	17. Confusion

**You won't be dissapointed with this chapter, read and you'll see why.**

**Continued from the end of Chapter 15. Riku's POV.**

Previously in Illumination…

"Then why were you two talking?" Nothing. "Can you even hear me?" He was getting frustrated but calmed himself in the wake of Namine's feelings. "Namine, all I wanna do is help."

For a minute they both sat still, he looking at her closed mouth, and she looking at her basically untouched food. Then she stood up and walked toward the exit. Riku caught up to her after a moment as she rounded a table. They continued out the doorway and through another grade's hallway to an empty stairwell. She stopped and stared at a wall, trapped. _Now she has to talk. Just please don't cry._

There was a silence and right when Riku was about to say something Namine spoke.

"I want to kill that lying slut."

**17**

_She has lost it. What did Kairi ever do to her?_

"Why do you wanna kill her?" Riku asked curiously. For a moment he worried that there would be another long pause filled with tension.

"She's the one who did this to me! She and her friends held me down and cut my hair," Namine blurted out and pointed to her ridiculously short hair.

"What! H-Why?" Riku was stunned. He couldn't and wouldn't believe that such a nice girl would do a thing like that.

"Kairi HATES me. She sees me as an obstacle on the road to you! Okay?" Riku absorbed the new information with interest and tried to piece together what was happening.

She continued, "I did some research on the Destiny Islands shootings, and it turns out that her parents are still alive."

"Then why is she here?" Riku asked judgmentally of such a ridiculous claim even if it was proposed by Namine.

"She's a delinquent. I don't know what she did, but her parents probably sent her to the orphanage because they jumped at the opportunity."

Riku considered the idea as a hypothetical and agreed for the sake of argument, keeping his cool even when Namine was so flustered. "So her parents knew that a group of kids were coming here after the shootings, and they put her on the bus."

"She was disowned and given an opportunity for a new life in the act."

_This is insane._

"I can't believe you would say something like that!" But Riku knew it was true. He had seen it in Kairi's eyes, the malice and cruelty when she talked to Namine. The fact resounded in his mind like his words resounded in the stairwell where they stood; each echo reminded him of how much a fool he was and how easily he was manipulated. She must have decided long ago that she would cheat on both of them, Roxas and Riku; one couldn't have picked a worse combination: Two enemies who both desired Kairi. All she desired was control and power, control that she didn't have over her own scattered life. If Namine's facts were true then that would mean that the core of all of Rikus's problems rested deep in Kairi's black heart.

Namine read the context clues of Rikus's expression and saw that he knew the truth.

"What about Roxas or Axel?" He wanted to get all of the bad news out of the way before continuing with his now broken life. In the few seconds that existed between his question and her reply he felt the disturbingly cold sweat form up on his body.

"They're still together. Kairi played both of you." Namine was sensitive but was so eager to give light to the girl's villainous behavior that it came out slightly rough. He winced in mental pain hurt and confusion.

_I'm gonna vomit._ He felt the feeling of vertigo overtake him and slumped down to the ground by Namine's feet. She sat down with him and brushed elbows with his as she did. She so much wanted to embrace him and comfort him, but she knew the way that these things went.

In his mind Riku thought his own sadistic thoughts. He imagined how it would feel to wrap his hands around Kairi's soft skinny neck and to squeeze until tears came from her eyes. He could so easily throw her down and smash her face in with his heel. With a small amount of energy he could break her beautiful face and the world could see how ugly she really was. He closed his eyes as he shifted back and forth between sadness, confusion, and anger.

"Riku," Namine said and rested her now spiky head on his shoulder. Her kindness chased away the murderous thoughts, most of them at least. Before they returned she spoke, "I would have told you sooner, but I was worried- didn't want you to, you know, shoot the messenger."

_Is that it you stupid… _

Riku didn't have any direction to throw his anger and in an attempt to target it away from the one who meant most to him he started to stand up. In the kindest way he could he lifted her light head off his shoulder and stood alone.

"FUCK!" he screamed at the top of his lungs and slammed the meat of his hand against the wall. The shockwave shuddered through his body and seemed to shake the entire area. When he pulled his hand away there was a dent in the wall. Someone would have to fix that and Riku wasn't happy about it, but he knew that the pent up anger inside of him would have to be let out some time.

They both looked at the wall and around the room for a while. They didn't talk, and that was okay, any words said at the state Riku was in would only infuriate him further. Eventually Riku got out of the destructive mindset and found a way to control his anger. He hugged Namine and whispered her shoulder.

"I'm so sorry I got you into this."

She held him tightly against him and responded, "I'm just happy you're not mad at me."

"Why would I ever be mad at you? You're the kindest and most honest person I know. I'm only mad at myself." _And that bitch._

"I've gotta go. If anything else happens to you, tell me immediately." He left her warm embrace and opened the doors to the hall. He walked back to the lunchroom.

Namine smiled. This was not her cute, kind smile. This was a smirk of happiness. Vengeance was hers. She thought about Kairi and how she cut off her hair then she thought of Riku's arms around her. These were two conflicting opposites, the removal of her shield and the new shield of Riku's arms. She thought to herself, "Cutting my hair off was the best thing Kairi could do to me. It showed who she really is to Riku."

Instead of her hair hanging in front of her face like a barrier she had Riku, a stronger guardian than her bangs could ever be. She absolutely loved him for that.

Back in the cafeteria Riku sat alone at Namine's table, finishing his lunch thoughtfully. He sifted through possible things to say to Kairi. At first it all worked out fine but when he rechecked his overly optimistic thought process everything went badly. But he didn't care if it was good or bad, just something was going to happen.

Pence walked by after five minutes, near the end of the lunch period, and nudged Riku's shoulder. "Hey dude, why're you sitting alone? Is something wrong?"

"Yeah, sit down." He gestured to the seat across from him. Pence sat down.

"What's going on? You seem different. You're acting different, you know?"

"Uh. What… What do you think about Kairi?"

"Uh, I don't know her that well."

"Come on. From what you know."

"Well, she's hot, and uh, nice."

"What if I told you that she's manipulative whore?"

Pence didn't say anything for a few seconds; his whole idea of what Riku thought of Kairi was flipped on itself. "Why are you saying this?"

"Namine just told me some stuff about her." He fiddled with his food then told him the details of Kairi's malice.

"What a terrible… person." He looked for the right words.

"Yeah, I know, but Roxas is still a prick. Just because he was manipulated doesn't mean that he can't be that too."

"Shit." Pence didn't often curse.

The lunch bell rang and they walked to put their trays away. Riku turned around to walk to the exit and caught a smile from Kairi who was walking away. He didn't smile back at her, and he didn't look away until she left. He kept staring at her as she walked down the hall and watched Roxas put his arm around her. He grinned smugly to himself and left. Finally there was an opportunity to get even with him.

_There's no way they had that fight. They probably just got drunk and screwed._

"Tell the guys," Riku said sideways to Pence without breaking the gaze.

"Sure, definitely."

Riku walked upstairs to his locker, thinking about the two copulating and what could have been going on in her mind. He dropped off his book bag and made a beeline through the groups of talking students to her locker. She was talking to Rachel.

"Hey Riku. What's up?" She smiled sweetly, and Rachel stopped talking to her.

"I… know what you did," he said coldly.

"What are you talking about?" His icy voice stunned her. She touched his arm, and he swatted it away roughly.

"Namine, that's what I'm talking about!" She inhaled sharply.

"What about Namine?" she said with indifference.

"HEY!" It was Roxas. "You don't touch her!" He shouted and pushed him against the lockers.

"Kairi isn't the girl you think she is," Riku said coolly.

"I think I know her better than you do."

"She's cheating on you with me and probably other guys." It didn't come out as he had hoped. Roxas clenched his jaw and breathed furiously. _He's really pissed._

"Piece of shit-"Roxas punched Riku in the jaw, sending Riku back into the locker door. Rikus's arms went up in defense as he prepared himself for a flurry of punches.

Roxas yelled and charged for a huge swing. Riku got out of its way and socked him in between the eyes. It didn't do really any damage, but it stunned Roxas giving time for Riku to get out of the space between his opponent and the lockers. Roxas punched wildly twice in the direction of Riku, one of the punches missed and the other landed a hit on Riku's neck. With his other hand, Roxas tried to smash Riku's teeth in but Riku dodged as Roxas's hand smashed into an open locker door instead.

Roxas cursed in pain. To add insult to injury Riku swung around and sloppily back handed Roxas in the mouth sending him reeling backwards. Roxas, however, returned to fight and put his hands up in a makeshift stance. Riku knew he could win; he didn't think about his fighting training with Sora, but it came into act through created reflexes. Riku didn't expect the kind of double punch that hit him in the gut and ear at the same time. It winded him, but he fought the urge to keel over. In response Riku blindly jabbed a few times, most were blocked away but his final punch hit Roxas in the jaw.

It was only then that Riku realized that there was a large group of people in an incomplete circle watching the brawl. There were some of Roxas's friends and fans cheering him on and there were others just watching, rooting for either party. Roxas swung and missed, the crowd made the classic noises to go along with each punch. Riku felt like the visiting team at a college town game. His tooth felt loose. His focus was lost, BAM! Each pound to the skull seemed to decrease his ability to focus on the task at hand, which was to not lose the fight.

He thought of what a punk Roxas had been to him and Pence and how he made his life miserable whenever he had the chance. This gave him a strength that had been absent before. He brought his fist to Roxas's cheek with bone crushing force. Roxas stumbled back and clutched his cheek and lower back. Although his hand hurt like hell, Riku charged in for a final attack, but Roxas whipped out a switch blade. Riku jumped backwards, and Roxas aggressively sliced his stomach. Had he not jumped back Roxas could have plunged the blade deep into Riku's gut.

Riku staggered back toward the edge of the circle where he was greeted by a push from someone's Biology textbook. No one but him knew what was going on and only he could feel the sting of the now bloody blade. He looked into Roxas's eyes with anger and in return he spat blood onto the floor.

Roxas charged again with the knife. Riku grabbed a textbook from someone behind him and slammed it against Roxas's head. The knife grazed the lower half of Riku's chin and flecked blood from both his injuries across some bystanders face. Roxas fell straight to the ground, his head bounced once off the tile. Riku, having just recovered from the tremendous swing's recoil, stumbled back into the circle and dropped the heavy textbook onto the ground. He looked at the ceiling and the ground where the textbook laid bloody side up. He thought about toast and how it never landed like that. He looked at the stunned faces of the students, they all blended into one. He saw Namine. She was just standing there, maybe she had been the power that had made him win and not get diced. Kairi grabbed him and instinctively he grabbed her for balance. She said, "I'm so glad you're okay-" Before she could finish he pushed her into the circle where Roxas was knocked out on the ground. She stumbled over her own feet and fell on her ass.

"You caused this," Riku said with a slur and with bloody spit dribbling down his chin. She started to cry. He walked away. He felt bad about it but knew that that was only his previous lust for her sneaking up on him. He felt no remorse for what was really all her fault.

He walked, really hobbled, into the nearest restroom which was a girls but he didn't care. He was not about to walk anymore than necessary. Someone asked what he was doing in there, but they were stopped midsentence by the state of his injuries and left hurriedly. Riku looked in the mirror and laughed. He looked terrible. No black eyes, yet but within a few minutes they would form. Blood splashed out of his nose, and he managed to dislodge one of his teeth.

_I'm gonna get a quarter for this little guy._

He lifted up his shirt and the basic motion of that flushed out more blood from his stomach. It soaked into his pants. The sight of so much of his own blood made him dizzy.

Blackness started approaching the center of his field of vision. He was blacking out; he looked at the entrance and saw Namine coming toward him. He smiled and leaned against the ground.

**The fight. I've been waiting for it, you probably have as well. I didn't want to make it to vicious, hope you didn't mind if it was. Please tell me what you think and I'll have the next chapter out in no time.**

**Photo88**


	18. New Day

**18**

**Last Chapter until further notice, I'm so sorry for the break in my writing but there has been a lot going on in my life.**

Riku woke up. At first he didn't open his eyes out of habit; he was having a good dream and wanted to slip back into it. But sadly that was not an option. He felt incredibly tired but as he remembered the last thing in his memory he knew that there were more important things to do.

When Riku opened his eyes he immediately regretted it. Blinding white light pierced his vulnerable eyes and caused him to block the sun with his arms out of reflex. The room containing the bed where he lay was not really that bright. It was just that Riku had not opened his eyes in a long time. He thought about where he was and how long he had been there. He really had no idea to anything exact, especially in terms of time.

A television was playing in the corner of the room. It had a dramatic movie playing without volume. For a while Riku watched it and read the misspelled captions. Some of the subtitles made him laugh, and the chuckle stung his stomach. He looked under the thin white sheets at a bandage around his abdomen. It didn't hurt very badly; he only then recognized the pain.

The show on the television wasn't very interesting though, even with the captions, and Riku turned to the sides of his bed. A small IV on a stand stood watch over his left shoulder; it was filled with some clear liquid that looked almost solid. On the table to his right Riku saw a small mound of cards and notes.

He repositioned himself awkwardly to read through them.

He started reading on the side closest to him. The first letter was a group of signatures and small notes on a rolled up poster. Sora, Pence and basically everyone he and they knew signed their name on it. Their signatures filled the hollow lettering of GET WELL DUDE! He laughed and again his stomach hurt. The next letter was one from his mother and his grandmother who didn't live far away. It was a note of how each of them was proud of him for standing up for himself and other things.

There was a small pile of individually wrapped chocolate candies that spilled onto the floor as Riku tried to reach for them behind an opened box of latex gloves. He stretched blindly to pick them up, using his hand as a feeler to grab the three candies. He picked them up but came across a piece of paper. He picked up the four things and dumped the candy on the table so he could read what the lost letter. It was written on thick drawing paper and folded down the middle so it looked like an actual card.

**Dear Riku,**

**I'm really sorry about your injury; I hope I didn't cause it.**

**The thing is, I can't believe all this is happening. I've so worried about you.**

**The doctors said that the knife got you in the cesoam, or cesium I really don't know what that is, (that's a good sign, means it's not important). My dad used to be a lawyer before so you don't have to worry about Roxas's parents suing for his death. **

**I visit you at six everyday so we can talk then.**

**Love,**

**Namine.**

Riku dropped the card on his chest and stared at the ceiling. _I killed Roxas._ He replayed the fight a hundred times over in his head; the image that was already imprinted in his memory forever was now branded into his mind's eye. The crack of Roxas's head on the floor echoed around in his skull.

Riku felt faint, fainter than he already was. He closed his eyes. He was ready to pass out. He wanted to actually, but it never happened. He was left thinking of scenes at a funeral and touching the new vacancy in his mouth with his tongue. Eventually he summoned enough courage to open his eyes and check the date on his watch. He thought if he had something solid to mentally stand on he could branch out and think calmly.

The watch read 3:24 8/15, August, seriously. How could that be correct? He thought for a second about being in a coma several months, but then he remembered Sora tampering with his watch on a sleepover a couple weeks prior. He had changed the time back to normal but never got around to returning the date to normal. This, at least, was a relief.

He stared at the ceiling for a few minutes and then reread the card a few times. Nothing mattered except Namine. He just wanted to embrace her and tell her how much he cared about her. In his mind, flashes of Kairi kissing him danced around rudely intruding his thoughts. He winced at every memory and wanted to throw himself out a window. But that wouldn't be good because then he couldn't see Namine again.

Although he told himself that he would stay awake until Namine arrived at six o'clock he had a lot of drugs in his system that made him exhausted. These conflicting ideas occupied Riku's mind for some time eventually putting him to sleep, a light and restless sleep. He did not dream, as long as seeing a slide show of memories edited by his own unconscious to be horrifying is not classified as dreaming, but slept for a few hours nonetheless. Not often do sixteen year old boys have to deal with a death caused by their hands.

When Riku woke up he immediately looked around to his right and left. Namine was sleeping in a plastic chair leaning against the left wall. He smiled and said something to wake her up.

"Hey." She opened an eye. "You're sleeping in my chair." It was a stupid joke, but he wanted to see her smile so badly that he had to say it.

She gave him a small grin and yawned. "I'm happy you're awake." She got out of the chair and went to sit on Riku's bed. He leaned up against the back wall and cringed with the sharp pain that followed.

"Don't. It's okay. I don't mind." He half leaned back down per her request. She touched his chin where Roxas's knife had ripped through the skin. She left her hand there a moment and Riku closed his eyes at her smooth touch. He wanted to lay there forever. But she let go after a while and laid down next to him on the bed; he gave her the courtesy he could by scooting over.

"What's the date?" he asked

"You've only been out two days," she responded of their proximity she didn't have to speak loudly. "The school's in a you passed out Sora, Pence and I carried you downstairs to the ambulance. There were two, one for the both of you." Riku let this information sink in.

"So is Roxas really dead?" He turned to face her.

"Yes." She looked back at him. "I got a ride to the hospital with a teacher but Demyx told me the next day that the paramedics said that the textbook snapped something loose in his brain. He died a few minutes after he hit the ground." Riku stared at the ceiling. She continued. "When the police arrived Demyx told them what happened first so that they wouldn't think that it was done out of malicious intent.

"I haven't gotten any sleep these past few days. I can only rest when I'm sitting in that chair here with you." He didn't respond. He just smiled and closed his eyes. Riku shifted closer to Namine, and in turn she shifted to get closer to him. He opened his eyes to stare into hers then he kissed her. She kissed him back, with a calm passion that could only truly be achieved when one is injured in the hospital.

He moved his hand to touch her cropped hair then moved to her smooth neck. She was so beautiful, but there was more than lust between the two of them, there was a cool tenderness that was patient with the other's movements. Namine was not an experienced kisser, but because Riku wasn't either it didn't matter. He loved being so close with her. It was such a powerful bond.

After a few moments they stopped kissing and looked tenderly into each other's eyes. Everything went so smoothly. It was almost dreamlike.

"Thank you for being here for me," he said. It was all he could do to keep himself from laughing with glee at how happy he was.

"You're welcome." Her sleepy eyes closed, and she rested her head on Riku's chest.

She whispered, "I love you," and then went to sleep.

He kissed her forehead and tightened his hold on her for a second emphatically, "I love you."

After a minute the two were asleep. They sleeping faces wore smiles; there was nothing to stop them from being together. This was the most relieving thought that they could ever have.

**Tears of a writer's joy are flowing down my face as I am writing this. Not really but, you get the idea. I really hoped you like my story, I might post a final chapter 2 or an epilogue later on but for now I am changing this story's status to completed. Thank you so much for sticking with me until the end! It's been a long two years and I wish I could have kept my priorities straight but –it happens.**

**Photo88**


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